Stars and Midnight Blue
by I.J.Girl
Summary: He was changing.Subtly, but for Tobey, any change was astonishing.And she noticed.Maybe because of the time they had spent together in their dream world. And she wanted to get to know him. Not the Theodore in the dreams, but the Tobey that was staring up at the stars with her. And she wanted him to know her.Not as Rachel, or Wordgirl, but as Becky. Now if only Jordan would vanish
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! New fandom, pretty cool. ^^ Anyway, please,, don't hate it, but if you see anything that you don't like, feel free to write about it in the review. Oh, and beforehand, I have nothing against Scoops. o.o Just in case I accidentally popped Tobey's opinion of him in here, instead of deleting that part like I think I did.**

**Oh, and as for the weird OC...blame the OC trade for that. Not that I don't like Jordan, but hermaphrodite? Pretty weird, but at least you can't call Jordan a Mary Sue. XD Jordan would be...Not Gary Stu, but something else...**

**Anyway, On with the story!**

* * *

It's frustrating to be a hermaphrodite. Not knowing who you were. Being the kid with a vague name because your parents didn't just chose for you when you were born.

That was me, Jordan, and I didn't know which I wanted to be. I had two bumps on my chest, a bugle in my pants, an irregular period every other month and a bit of a mustache. Not much, I've seen women with bigger mustaches, but when you're picking on yourself, you notice everything.

I've always been a sensitive person, except when trying to manipulate people into doing something for me. I've been good at that, manipulation, maybe because instead of participating much, I observe and learn a lot about a person. Like my mom. She's a tough cookie, but pamper her miniature poodle, Mr. Muggles and she'll give you the world.

My dad? Talk with him about his favorite car in the morning and by evening you can ask for your allowance in advance without being afraid of him catching on. That's the simpler kind of manipulation. I tell only what they need to know to give me the right reaction. There's power, control, in secrets you keep.

People have asked me how I can manipulate my own family, and I shrug. I'm not hurting them, at least, not that I know.

It was my birthday. I was lost that day, staring at the floor, past my book, my eyes seeing worlds of wonder and beauty and in each one I was accepted, either for something I did, or just accepted for being me.

"Sweetheart? Should we put pink or blue on your cake?" my mother hovered over me, her anxious face shattering my daydreams, and her curly hair bouncing.

I looked up, a frown gracing my pale face. I didn't get outside much.

"Um...how about...red?"

My mom gave me a look that obviously showed her disappointment in my answer, but frankly, I've never felt any emotional connection to pink or blue. Red, however, shows power and strength, and green has always made me feel at home.

After getting the cake frosted, my mom pulled me out of my chair, not that I couldn't walk, she just likes the illusion of control as I do. She pulled me over to the table, and for once, I was glad my brother wasn't home. I don't like being placed in front of people, or being the center of attention because of what I am.

My dad, a portly man with a cheery face, sat at the table, holding my gift. Probably my only gift. It was pretty small. Maybe another book?

"Happy birthday, Jordan," my parents smiled at me. I smiled back, and felt uneasy.

"Thanks Mom, Dad."

My mom had lit the candles, and I counted them. Twenty. Funny, I didn't feel that old. It was like I had skipped on my childhood and teen years.

Taking a deep breath, I blew all the candles out. I laughed, more for show than because I felt like it.

"There you go, sweetheart," Mom exchanged a glance with Dad. Oh, no, that meant they had been talking about me again.

"Jordan," please, Dad, I don't want to hear it, "Your mother and I have been talking about you."

"Oh?" I glanced at the gift in his hands, forgotten by him, and I twiddled my thumbs. Ever tried to thumb wrestle yourself? It's kinda impossible, you know your every move.

"And, sweetheart," Mom always calls me that, instead of my name, "We were wondering...Have you decided yet?"

I squirmed, staring at the present, "On a college?"

She bit her lip. They were always a dark, crimson red. I liked the color.

"No, sweetheart."

"We don't mean to pressure you, Jordan," Dad spoke up again, "But have you decided-"

"Male or female, Jordan?"

I jerked to look at my mom, shocked, first because she used my name, and second from the abruptness of her interruption.

And then because of the question itself.

Okay, you might not think of this as more than a natural question, but to me at the time, it was questioning my very sense of being, and it was enough when I was in school and kids would try to be friends with me and ask, "You are a boy/girl, right?"

Anyway, I've always reacted badly, screaming in frustration and running away until I found a place to cry alone. I've always done that when pressured to answer, and although I'm grown now, I felt that pressure. That immense confusion

And my birthday was no different. I streaked out of the apartment house, leaving my caring, yet annoying parents behind, calling out for me. I ran down the stairs and off into the streets, running as fast and as far as I could.

Unlike every time before, I couldn't find a place of refuge, and I ran in my old blue sneakers, tears streaming down my face. I blame my emotionality on the subject to my female hormones clashing with the male. I ran down street after street, finally ending up in the outskirts of Fair City next to the lake.

_'Boy or girl?' _the question rang as I collapsed on a bridge, the very edge of my toe brimming on the outside of the sidewalk. With a groan, I brushed my unruly brown hair our of my face.

"Why do I have to choose? Why can't I just be anything I want?" I whined up into the clouds.

The clouds didn't respond, having spent all their special super-power-giving lighting on Ms. Question already.

"_Although that was five years ago," _the narrator interjected. [1]

"_Oh...hey there...you. Um, I paid for your vacation in the Caribbean? Please go? Thank you," _the author prodded him.

The narrator raised an eyebrow at the impetuousness (although no one saw him) while I was left to wonder for my sanity for a moment.

After a few minutes of catching my breath, I sat up with a sigh, and watched as the cars made their way across the bridge, scoffing as a very unhappy and green Eileen (everyone knew her name) ran across the city in the distance.

"Wonder if it was her boyfriend that dumped her this time?"

Too bad I wasn't Wordgirl. I would have had the girl straightened out two years ago.

Not unlike most teens and (and some post-teens who were older than the resident super heroine), I'm ashamed to admit I spent an immense amount of time dreaming of being Wordgirl, and thought I could do a much better job. Much better.

But, nothing seemed to be very interesting today. Not even the battle going on in the city. I let my thoughts wander, and figured I had thrown a long enough fit. Although I wasn't too sure what I was going to say once I got back, I figured I should go home. I didn't have anywhere else to go. With a sigh, I stood up, kicking a rock onto the road as a truck passed by. A big truck. I watched with surprise at the army truck loaded with what seemed to be barrels of...oil?

Watching the trucks, I continued to head back home, not noticing the untied shoelace on my oversized sneakers. With a cry, I tripped out into the street, where another army truck was roaring up to me, like some primordial predator on its exhausted prey. I froze, fear stopping every function.

Noticing the person on the road, the driver swerved violently, causing the truck to tip over, dropping the barrels of "oil" all over the road...and on me. Upon impact the barrels practically popped open, spilling a superfluity [2] of red 'oil' over the road and I snapped out of my frozen solid state with a scream.

The army truck driver jumped out, ready to try and rescue the person on the road, but his companion grabbed his arm.

"Don't! That stuff will kill you!"

Upon hearing that, I felt something wash over me. No, not the oil, a feeling. A morbid, garbled feeling worse than panic, worse than fear. The feeling a person got when a gun was held to their head and they can imagine the trigger being pulled, that feeling of the bullet imploding through their cranium even though it hadn't happened yet. When a person is told they have cancer and they can feel all their energy draining from their bodies, their souls, their hearts. They can feel their death in more detail than was actually possible.

I could feel the sinister looking stuff suffocating me, seeping through my skin and into my eyes, an aching pain spreading through my limbs. I wanted to cry again. Of all ways to die...

I groaned, and found I could still walk. It hurt, oddly, like every muscle in my body was dry and grinding against the bones they were attached to, but I could walk. I tried to run, but it was like being wrapped in a soaked quilt, but I kept dragging myself over to the side of the bridge, and saw the water below. The fall looked dangerous, but I wanted this stuff off, NOW. Otherwise...

As I flung my leg over, I could hear the cries of onlookers, the army truck driver who wanted to help me, and for a split second, I almost came to my senses...then I slipped off the side of the bridge into the water below. My thoughts hadn't been of dying, it was survival. Pure, animal survival. I would have torn through a crowd to get to the water. (although I would have regretted it later)

The fall seemed to take forever, although in reality it was a matter of five seconds before I landed in the water. Somewhere in that time, I felt my consciousness leave...we felt it leave, fading into a black blank.

o.o. .o.o.o.

The fifteen year old Wordgirl had heard a part of the commotion on the bridge, and for a moment wished she could be in two places at once. But the thought was crushed as Eileen screamed again.

"**That dress is mine!"**

"Birthday girl, this dress is way too small for you anyway!"

"**Is not! And I'm not Birthday Girl!"**

Wordgirl froze solid. When had _that_ happened?

"But...You...It's your 'birthday', right?"

Eileen glared at her, **"No."**

"That weird," commented the narrator.

"Um...Okay..." she looked to Captain Huggy Face, who shrugged, then muttered, "It's about time she realized..."

"**I heard that! Anyway, it doesn't matter if it's my birthday or not, because I can always have anything I want!"**

"No, you can't! Because if you get anything YOU want, than other girls won't be able to go on dates because you took their dress!"

"**Becky doesn't need this dress!"**

"Well, neither do _you_, do you? I mean, don't you already have one of those? In your size?"

The giant girl was silent for a moment, her eyes glancing to the dress, realizing that it was in fact the same dress she already had.

"**Oh..." **the girl shrugged and tossed the dress to the wind, shrinking down to normal size and walking off as if nothing had happened. Wordgirl, meanwhile, shrieked in a panic as she watched _her_-ahem, _Becky's _dress plummeting down towards a rather large puddle of muddy water. Zooming down so fast that Captain Huggy Face was nearly knocked off her shoulder, she managed to catch it last second, and hugged it to herself. For a moment she just stood there, sighing in relief.

"Wordgirl? Little distracted?" the narrator commented.

"Huh? Oh, right!" She flew into the nearest tree, transforming into Becky Botsford in a flash and climbing back down, the new green summer dress tucked safely under her arm.

o.o.o.o.o.o

"Becky?"

Becky ran through the park, swerving to avoid a group of skateboards and their riders. Catching up to Scoops, she smiled at him in such a way that it revealed her lingering crush, "Hi, Scoops."

The boy gave her a one over, "Wow, you...got new clothes?"

The dress wasn't really all that special. It was a plain green dress with small puffed sleeves, but Becky had instantly wanted it when she had seen it in the store. Luckily, her babysitting had paid off, and she had just enough to buy it.

"You didn't have to do that," Scoops rubbed the back of his neck, giving her an odd look.

"Oh, this? Nah, I just wanted to try it out...and today just happened to be when I decided to. I mean, this has nothing to do with you and me going-"

Bob chirped up at her.

"Of course we're getting ice cream," Becky answered offhandedly, slightly relieved to be pushed off her train of rambling, and trained her eyes on Scoops, "Right?"

"Sure. Look, Becky, I only-"

Becky winced as her super hearing picked up the sound of robots crashing through town, and with a sigh, interrupted the boy, "Um, I, uh, forgot to bring...Bob's diapers! Yeah, I gotta go, but I promise I'll be right back!"

She turned, running down the street, while Todd 'Scoops' Ming sighed. It wasn't going to be easy to let her down. The boy kicked a rock on the sidewalk, thinking of Becky's best friend, Violet. Whether she knew it or not, she had found a way to weasel past his usual haze, and had begun to pull on heart strings that he hadn't known existed. Which was why a comment from the breezy Violet had begun to worry him.

"_And since Becky likes you, you should sit next to her at lunch."_

He wasn't exactly sure what conversation had lead up to that comment(being that there had been many, many conversations between the two) but he knew that it had been a head turner. Suddenly a lot of things made sense...and now he knew he was hurting Becky deeply without even knowing it.

Normally he wouldn't have given the comment a second thought, nor would he have acted on it, but Violet had turned into a role model for him, and one of his favorite qualities about her was her thoughtfulness towards her friends.

After a lot of internal struggle(and a conversation with his father) he had decided that the best thing to do was tell Becky straight on that he wasn't interested in her as anything more than a very good friend. Now to find a way to say it without causing too many tears...

He wasn't sure he could handle a girl breaking down on him. Just the thought of it made him want to run for the nearest bush and hide until the problem went away. Oooohhh, boy...

Wordgirl wasn't in a good mood at being interrupted. Not at all.

She swung around, landing a sharp kick to the back of a robot's head, breaking through the exterior metal and into the sensitive wires and hard drives inside, anger bubbling inside of her chest at the interruption. She could distantly hear Tobey shouting something along the lines of:

_Oh, come on, won't you listen to my demands before demolishing my robots?_

_Not today, Tobey._ The last robot was taken care of with a twist of her wrist and she needed to get back to Scoops. Before he thought she had ditched him

"_WAIT! _Don't you want to know what this whole...perturbation was about?!"

"_NO_, I don't!" She flew off in the direction of the street where Scoops was, only to feel a determined hand grab her foot. Almost tripping in midair, she stopped flying away. She was once told that the force that was exerted in getting her off the ground was akin to that of a miniature lunar rocket...or so she had gathered from between all the stammered rocket jargon. Still, she didn't want to see what happened to the person who happened to be under that force.

"Tobey, let me go!"

"My, my, someone is surely throwing a big hissy fit today," he smiled smugly to having stopped her. She responded by landing in front of him, glaring to burn holes in his head...or glasses, which ever sailed the ship.

"_Theodore Eliot Mc__A__llister the III_, you had better let me get back to what I was doing, or I will redefine your definition of 'hissy fit'," [3] she bared her teeth and let out an almost genuine animal hiss, surprising herself at the anger with which she responded. Tobey responded with a lopsided grin, before clearing his throat.

"Now, Wordgirl, as everyone can see, you are not sufficiently impressed with my incredible intellectual skills, so I will challenge you-"

Oh, not this again. FIVE years, Tobey. Wordgirl felt her face heat up. This was why he interrupted her da-It wasn't a date...

"Again?! And if you win – and that is one _big _IF – let me guess, you want to go out on a date with me? Ice cream, poems, the works. How about this, Tobey?"

She hovered off the ground a couple of inches, trying to get level with the gangly boy's face, "I am already dating someone! Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just _maybe _you are interrupting my _real _life and ruining my day? That maybe if you'd just STOP wrecking the city, you could lead a normal life? And why can't you get it through your head, I. DON'T. LIKE. YOU.

"_And I never will! _So stop trying, because all you're doing is making a fool of yourself in front of the whole city; making everyone, including your mom, have to pay more taxes to rebuild what you destroy, _and_ you ruin every day of mine that you're in!" She was shouting in his face now, hovering above the boy, who's lower face was entirely covered with his arm.

The backs of his legs were pressed against the small wall on the rooftop of the building they were on and his back was leaning dangerously close to causing a fall. But what cooled her anger was the look in Tobey's eyes. It was the betrayal, the disappointment. The crushed pride and vulnerability.

It was his entire body language as a whole. Or at least, the most of it she could see being so close to him. It looked so familiar. It _felt _so familiar. And for some reason it filled her with remorse. A remorse that didn't feel like her own. And another feeling that seemed just beyond her reach of understanding.

Suddenly, she realized everything she had just said. It was just as bad or worse than what she had said to him while she was being influenced by Miss Power. [4]

The tiniest sound escaped her mouth, the beginning of something she wanted to say, but didn't know how.

After a what seemed to be a very long, very quiet moment, he straightened up, the vulnerability in his expression gone, and moved past her as if she was emitting some form of toxic radiation.

Grabbing the handle to the door to go down, he paused, a confused expression on his face, "You know, Wordgirl..."

He didn't finish, and looked as though he had something on the tip of his tongue, his mouth making one last odd movement before he shrugged, and left, only slightly crestfallen.

She wanted right there and then to stop him and burst out with an apology, a part of her even wanted to beg for forgiveness because...this wasn't what heroes did. They didn't try to crush another person's and try to extinguish it completely. Yet that was what she had done. Or tried to anyway.

But she couldn't. Something held her tongue back and she just watched him walk down the stairs, her heart twisting with shame. She floated back, sitting on the wall with a pensive, slightly guilty look on her face. Captain Huggy Face climbed up the side of the building, panting, and gave her an odd look.

He asked her what she was doing.

"Well..." she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck and arching her back, "I did something kinda mean...Something heroes shouldn't really do..."

Captain Huggy Face raised an eyebrow, inviting her to elaborate.

Wordgirl stood up, grabbing his hand, "I'll explain it to you on the way back to the park, okay?"

o.o.o.o

"I'm here! I'm back...oh..." Becky ran up to the bench where Scoops was sitting and bent over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath for a moment.

"Oh, hey, Becky," Scoops straightened up from his pensive position, smiling, "I, uh, got you your ice cream, but it melted."

"Oh, thanks, Scoops. Sorry for taking so long, but uh-"

Scoops interrupted her uncomfortably, his ever present pencil dancing rapidly between his thumb and pointer finger, "Look, Becky, I'm sorry to cut you off like this, but we need to talk."

Becky's eyes widened, "Oh?"

"Yeah. I asked you to come meet me here so that we could talk. And not like an interview talk, but talk-talk. Like friend's talk?"

"...Uh-_huh..."_ Scoops was starting to confuse her.

He took a deep breath, putting the pencil in its pocket next to his notebook, "Violet let it slip that you're interested in me...Is that true?"

Becky's cheeks lit up a rosy tinge, her tongue immediately flying into action before her mind managed to catch up, "Wha-Huh? No! yes-I mean...Violet?"

She pouted, wondering if Violet had let some of her other secrets 'slip'.

"Yeah, and uh, I didn't want to accidentally mislead...I mean...Oh, this sounded better in my head," the boy buried his face in his hands. Maybe he should have just ignored this whole situation, or bailed while he could...

Becky meanwhile, had a hunch about where this was going. And she didn't want to hear it.

"Scoops!" she was surprised at how loud she had said it, and blushed in embarrassment as the boy snapped to look at her, "uh, um...Bob really wants his ice cream! Can we get it? I mean now. B-before you keep going...maybe?"

The Asian boy blinked, then nodded vaguely, wiping his forehead.

"Don't worry, I'll pay for it! No, Bob, you can't have three scoops," Becky jumped up, dragging Bob over to the ice cream stand. She took a deep breath.

She knew, or thought she knew what he was going to say. The looks on his face when Violet was around, the way he and Violet had been spending more and more time together, Valentines Day these last few years...it was all starting to make sense. Becky's voice quavered slightly as she translated Bob's words over for the ice cream guy.

And she had thought that he had finally started to like-

"Excuse me?" an impertinent voice crashed her train of thought, "Would you and your hairy beaver _move _already?"

Becky grit her teeth as she recognized the owner. Tobey. The universe really was hating her today.

"Well, you have been holding up the line for five minutes."

"Well, thank you for your two cents, narrator," Becky muttered as she grabbed Bob's arm and pulled him away. He didn't give her much of a fight, since he was busy trying to stuff the entire double scoop into his mouth. Becky suddenly smirked, and as Tobey (with his highfaluting, victorious, snobbish, self righteous grin) walked up to the bartender, [5] she threw out her foot, hooking her ankle with his and sending the gangly boy flying towards the ice cream stand.

Tobey yelped as he landed, spluttering as ice cream went flying every which way.

"_My ice cream stand!"_

"...ow..."

"Watch where you're going!" Becky called back, as the dazed boy tried to wipe strawberry ice cream off his glasses, then face palmed as Bob gave her a look. Feeling sorry for the guy one minute and the next sending him flying into an ice cream stand. She really was experiencing big mood swings today. Although that wasn't unusual any more.

Becky sighed as she sat down next to Scoops again. He squirmed uncomfortably before trying to continue where he left off, but Becky interrupted him.

"No, I...I know what you're trying to say..." her pointer fingers began to fidget around each other, "That you don't really like me and that-"

"It's not that I don't like you, it's just that-"

"You don't 'like' me like me..."

Scoops nodded, looking relieved. Becky stared at the floor in front of her, before taking a deep breath and plastering a big smile on her face.

"So!" she internally cringed at how loud she was sounding, "When are you and Violet...?

Scoops' eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously, stuttering a couple unintelligible sentences, and Becky's hunch was confirmed. She laughed, forcing out the sounds in such a way that it really did sound fake, "Oh, you do like her. I knew it."

Scoops blushed, closing his mouth.

"So when are you two going to start dating? I mean, you don't have to, just in case this is just a-"

"Oh, no, I don't think...I don't think we're ready for that quite yet...I don't even know..." he stopped, and Becky noticed that the pencil was back in his hands, dancing avidly.

"If she likes you too?" she couldn't help but feel somewhat satisfied that at the very least he was going through the same thing with Violet that Becky had gone through with him.

"Agh!" Bob cried out as his ice cream plopped on the ground. Becky sighed.

"Well, Scoops...I've got to go home and do that assignment from last week. It's due tomorrow, plus my dad is making another one of his special dinners. I'll get mega-grounded again if I miss it."

"Oh...okay, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess," Scoops suddenly looked exhausted as he stood up, giving her a quick goodbye hug. Even though she knew he didn't mean it any different than any of his other one-armed hugs, she felt as if she was saying goodbye to a life-long fantasy, albeit unwillingly. She wrapped both arms around him, and wished that things could be different. That it didn't have to hurt to let go of her crush. She stepped back and picking up Bob, walked away. As she approached the curb, she looked back with a sad smile on her face, before running as fast as was possible without using her super speed.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I could feel myself fading, and wanted to breathe with all my soul, but I couldn't. I could feel that I had been washed up somewhere, but I couldn't will myself to open my eyes.

My ears were ringing. Was someone walking up to me? I couldn't tell.

A gentle hand patted my face, and I was able to breathe. With a gasp, I pushed myself off the ground, and turned to look into the face of a gentle looking African-American man. Although, his face was currently contorted in shock.

"Thanks," I whispered. To my surprise, the man took off running like the devil was chasing him. I blinked, and reached out, almost calling him back, but was surprised to find that my hand was larger than what I was used to. And a dark, dark brown.

"What the-?" my voice was deeper. After a few seconds, I decided that maybe the 'oil' had burned me, or ruined my voice or something. Stumbling to my feet, and noticing my shoes weren't too big any more, I began to walk up the bank. I had ended up at the border between Fair City suburbs and the forest, and counted myself lucky to not have to walk too far.

The suburbs were actually quite nice. I walked up to the back yard of a house, noticing the pool sitting deflated and empty, and climbed over the fence. Not to break in or anything, just to make it to the street. The entire suburbs was fenced away from the lake. Seemed ridiculous to me. If I lived next to a lake I'd make it worth my while and go swimming instead of ignoring it's existence. Oh, well, I didn't live here, so it didn't matter. I managed to stumble onto the immaculate road, and was relieved to not be invading someone's private property. Some of the kids were playing basketball across the street, and I shrunk away from them, not wanting to be seen. I just wanted to get home, and get this weird day over with. Oh, and find out what on earth happened to my skin and voice.

"Hey, Mr. Cleaver!" One of the kids cried out, waving towards me furiously. I paused, gripping my elbows.

"Mr. Cleaver, come over here!"

Who was Mr. Cleaver? I kept walking away, sending a few awkward glances back, and hurrying away from them. After walking down the curb, I broke into an all out run. Did I mention I'm pretty good at running? After reaching the school that all the kids in the city went to (under Federal Law or something. The only alternative was an extremely expensive private school named 'Miss Heath's Straightening school for Crooked Students'...I think about five kids attended that school), I stopped for breath, only to get nearly knocked over by a green flash.

"Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry!" The girl grabbed my arm, keeping me from falling over, and I pulled back, biting my lips.

She gave me a curious look, green eyes probing me for a second, before taking off, "Uh, see you later?"

Only then did I notice that the kid had some sort of pet perched on her back. What was that?

Spots swam over my vision, and I fell on my rear, wincing.

"Becky!"

My eyes widened as some Asian kid walked up to me, and I quickly jump up to my feet

"What are you doing-? What happened to your clothes?" the teenager looked over me in horror, and I cringed back, looking at my shoes...which had somehow gotten huge on my feet. What was happening? Why was everyone mistaking me for someone else?

"Are you okay?"

I looked up at the boy, "I...I guess so..."

My voice was a hundred decibels higher than before.

The boy looked satisfied, and continued on his way. I looked down at my shoes, only to find I had somehow slipped out of them...and was hovering a couple inches over them. With a shriek, I tried to throw myself onto the floor, as if that would help, but only managed to throw my entire self forward _into_ the street. Literally. I burrowed a hole into the street, and only felt as if I had bumped my head into a wall. Panicking, I jumped out of the hole, only to throw myself up, up, up, into the air, until I could see all of Fair City from where I was.

"Wow. That was...shocking," the narrator watched bemusedly.

"No, no, no, no," I realized I was chanting the word ever since I had noticed my feet off the ground, and stopped, trying not to hyperventilate. I was still floating up, and screamed as I was caught in a wind channel, tossed around violently. My hands flew up to my head, and I found long hair. Not long by most people, but my hair was always kept short, a little long for a guy, but a little short for a girl.

"I wonder how I'm gonna wash it," I found myself saying, before I found myself shooting out of the wind channel and into Fair City. With a shriek, I thrust my arms out in front of me, as if to grab some invisible steering wheel and take control, and my flight path veered from straight down to partially parallel to the ground. Partially because I was tilted upwards again, but I had fallen far enough that I had to follow the street, or crash into the shining buildings Fair City was so proud of. Nearing a sharp turn, I jerked my whole body to the left, and was surprised to find myself following the street still. I hadn't crashed yet.

How all these things were possible, were beyond me. But I smiled incredulously, watching the city fly by as I made sharp turns to keep from crashing, and pointed my arms upwards, my body following. Making it to the clouds, high above the ground, I tried to stop, but instead found myself careening towards the forest. The moment of joy was gone, and I tried to redirect my fall, but with a crack, I flew straight through a tree, sending it crumbling to the ground, and burrowed deep under ground. With a groan, I noticed I wasn't floating anymore.

"What a relief," I muttered, as I crawled out of the tunnel I had made. Pulling myself out of the ground, I turned to look around...And was shocked to find some odd sort of...building? Playhouse?

Looking closer, and noticing the stars, the red and yellow colors, it dawned on me. This was Wordgirl's super-secret-hide-out. What were the odds I'd end up there?

"Yeah, what are the odds?"

"Mister...voice?"

"Narrator."

I nodded, "Right, narrator, um, could you please not talk right now? Just this whole situation is..."

"Confusing?"

"Yeah, and you...your voice coming out of nowhere is kinda unnerving."

"...Well, it is kinda my job to narrate."

"Please?"

"...Don't you want to know why this is happening to you?"

My eyes flew open, and I stood up, staring into the air, about where I believed the voice was coming from, "You know?"

"Yeah, well, I do have the outline."

"_So that's where it went to!" _the author interjected, snatching the outline from the narrator.

"Well, how am I supposed to narrate if I don't know what's going on?"

With a sigh, the author responded in a soft, slightly annoyed voice, _"You're not supposed to, actually..."_

"But it's my-"

"Do you know what's going on with me?!" I cried out, waving my arms to interrupt the invisible people.

"Well," the author sent the narrator a glare, but let him continue, "The toxic material that was 'accidentally' dropped on you altered your genes. And now-"

The younger voice interrupted excitedly, _"You can take on the form of all and any genetic codes that you get your hands on, in this case, Wordgirl's genetic code-"_

"Hey!" the narrator snatched the outline back, glaring at the author, who was clearly giving away too much information.

"_...oops. Sorry."_

I was still for a moment. Wordgirl? A memory began to float around in my head, an abstract idea of someone's life...Becky Botsford. Being a hero was the core of the girl's being. Wordgirl. Leading a double life. Super strength. Violet. Mom. Dad. TJ. Scoops.

Memories filtered in, abstract and sparse, and I knew who Wordgirl was. Who Becky was. Or at least the building blocks that made them up.

I coughed, coming back down into reality...back into _Jordan. _But...for a split second...I had been Becky, _normal _girl. For a split second I had been Wordgirl, accepted for who she was.

_Not unlike most teens and (and some post-teens who were older than the resident super heroine), I'm ashamed to admit I spent an immense amount of time dreaming of being Wordgirl, and thought I could do a much better job. Much better._

I looked at my hands, clenching one into a fist, and slammed it into the ground, causing a mini-earthquake. I stared in awe.

_...my eyes seeing worlds of wonder and beauty and in each one I was accepted, either for something I did, or just accepted for being me._

The city loved Wordgirl, and she had plenty of flaws. Mom and Dad weren't pressuring Becky to be something she wasn't. She was accepted. Loved.

I wanted that. I wanted it so badly, it hurt. I turned to look at the spaceship – the one that had brought Becky and Bob, Wordgirl and Captain Huggy Face to the planet Earth. I stared, questions and longings stirring up inside of me. Part of me didn't want to intrude. Another part claimed that it wasn't intruding, and I silently waged war against myself.

I was twenty. Too old to be this childish.

Did that matter?

Suddenly, without letting myself think, I ran into the ship.

* * *

**[1] I can't say I won't have fun with this guy. XD**

**[2] I literally have this thesaurus sitting next to me on the desk, and I'm using it. ;)**

**[3] Okay, I gave him that middle name without even thinking of it, I just wrote it. Is it okay? Oh, and my writing program says the word 'hissy' doesn't exist. o.O Is that true? Because I'm 89% sure it does.**

**[4] I haven't actually been able to watch this one yet, but I gathered what I could from the clips on youtube and such...I actually had a chance to watch it, a long time ago, but I skipped it up because I detested the animation style. I mean, seriously, BLEH. But, well, my brother went on a Wordgirl watch-a-thon, and watched the three seasons in about a week. O.o' Then I did the same, getting curious, and WHAM! I'm hooked. **

***Looking up* Hmm. I argue a lot, huh? XD Anyway, review, and please tell me what you think. Oh, yeah, this is going to eventually look into Wordgirl's orgins, but it's going to be a while down the road. OH, and Tobecky, Dave/Beatrice Bixby(I think the two would make an adorable couple...once the copy shop was shut down) Violet/Scoops, TJ/...Er, I don't know who Timothy Junior would be interested in. XD **

**Oops, I'm hyper. Drank too much root beer. XP Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, please review, feel free to critizize any points you think need improvement, if the characters are too OOC, make sure to tell me. Don't worry, I'm a tough girl. XD I'm not going to break if you point something bad in my story out(I think a lot of people are afraid to offend and so avoid saying anything bad about anything...then there are the trolls. XP)**

**AGH, I'm talking your ears off, sorry! Bye!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey. New chapter! 8D I actually had this one done the same day I posted the first chapter, but I held it back to edit and...well, I wasn't sure whether or not to put in some parts already, or to hold out, or something. Any way, forgive me for some of the characters, I SWORE I wouldn't put in any more OCs after Jordan and her family, but that left me at odds for the school faculty and stuff. And forgive me if some of the details about the school is off, I'm homeschooled, and the only experience I had with schools was a little private school when I was 3 and a half. And it was little. Plus I live in Puerto Rico, so the schools might be different, although that wouldn't make sense, considering we are a part of the US...sorta. We're owned by the US and are US citizens...O.o Ay, caramba, sorry, long tangent. **

**On with the story!**

* * *

TJ glared across the table at Becky, trying to elicit some response. Nothing. She stared blankly ahead, hand moving automatically from her food to her mouth. She didn't notice both her parents glancing at her after they commented on Tim Botsford's new creation, waiting for the comment that was due for the food. Even Bob seemed slightly uneasy, trying _not _to look at her.

TJ hated to admit it, but his sister was pretty. Despite all the times he had called her ugly or otherwise(and gotten grounded for it), he could see that she was pretty. Successful. She got everything she wanted handed to her on a silver platter, it seemed. He still resented her for winning all those trophies. Including the Trophy for Most Trophies Won in a School year...three-ice. Wait, what was that word for three that was like twice? Thr...thrice?

Becky had a massive vocabulary, and for some reason he resented her for it. He didn't resent Wordgirl for it, yet, for some reason, whenever Becky went all 'Wordgirl' on them, he felt resentment. Anger.

She was still staring blankly, and he decided to take matters into his own hands, and kicked her leg...or tried to, just as Mom spoke up, "Well, Becky?"

He winced. Whatever he had kicked was harder than bricks, yet Becky had snapped out of her daze and glared at him. He probably kicked the table leg.

"Uh...I'm sorry, what's-?" she began, putting down her fork.

"We want to know what on Earth is going on in that alien head of yours, Becky. Especially about the _food _that _Dad_ spent hours making," he glared at her. Her eyes went flying around the room, and she suddenly seemed nervous. Not about the food though.

"Oh, right, I'm so sorry dad. I was kinda-"

"Staring into outer space, again," once again, his accusation unnerved her. He liked that, being able to get the upper hand once in a while.

Sally laughed, her unique sound seeming to calm Becky's nerves down, "Now, now, TJ. Let your sister talk, okay?"

He shrugged, shoveling another forkful of the food into his mouth as Becky rambled on about the flavor with big words and the occasional definition here and there.

Maybe he didn't like her because she was like Wordgirl? He could admit to having a crush on the super hero, although it was withering slowly. Being twelve, he felt like the last two years were spent growing up, instead of being TJ, or playing, or worrying about Wordgirl. Just get up, go to school, go home, watch TV for _15 minutes_(an hour and a half actually), do homework, extra-curricular stuff, go to bed, repeat. He was no longer President of the Wordgirl International fan club, Johnston had gotten more votes than him this year...and last year.

Relationships seemed to be wearing him down lately, especially his relationship with Becky. He didn't like being around her at all, and yet Tim and Sally kept pushing the two together, trying to repair a friendship that had never really been there in the first place.

Besides, he would bet good money that Becky really was some sort of invading alien.

"TJ, stop kicking me!"

Becky's annoying voice crashed his train of thoughts...well, more like sent it flying off the rails and into the depths of a black hole. He couldn't for the life of him remember what he was thinking about a couple seconds ago.

"I'm not kicking you," true, he was kicking the table. Or so he thought.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Alright, alright, children, calm down," Sally peered under the table for split second before coming up again, "Now, TJ, what have we told you about teasing people while eating?"

He didn't like being treated like a child, but it sure beat having responsibilities heaped up on him, "But I'm not kicking her!"

He poked his head under the table, eyes opening in shock as the 'hard as bricks' table leg turned out to be Becky's leg.

"Are too," she childishly jabbed her tongue out at him.

He sent her a heated glare, his leg staying still. About to make some sort of angry comment, he decided to give in...for once.

"Fine! You win. This time."

..0.0.0

.

.

"Meanwhile, back in Tobey's bedroom lair..."

"_..._' back' _in Tobey's bedroom lair? We haven't been here yet!"_

"...You know, there's a reason I'm still on the show."

"_Oh, fine. But don't interrupt too much, it messes with the flow of the story."_

"What are you, my mother? Besides, I'm supposed to narrate, that's the whole purpose of my existence!"

"_Well, was your mother an author?"_

"Not a fan fiction one."

The girl deadpanned,_"GAH! Just-! Stick to the program!"_

_. _

_. _

_. _

Tobey scribbled furiously on his blue design sheets, trying to invent a 'bigger' and 'better' robot to help him defeat Wordgirl.

"Again? After this afternoon?"

"Quiet, you disturbing little voice!" Tobey jabbed a finger up at the narrator without peeling his eyes off of his paper.

"_Have you noticed me yet?"_

"Actually, I have, but I've chosen to ignore you for the obvious reasons. Now shush before you two's idiocy becomes contagious," Tobey kept his eyes on his designs, not bothering to glance at the invisible stalkers.

"Ha. Ha," the narrator deadpanned.

The author frowned, and dryly responded to Tobey's jab,_"Very funny."_

Tobey groaned, choosing not to continue with the two, and pulled the paper closer.

"Theodore, don't do that, your eyesight will get worse," Tobey's mother peered into the room, raising an eyebrow at the mess while Tobey reluctantly put more distance between himself and the paper, rubbing his forehead.

Curse these headaches.

"Did you take your medicine?"

_'Pills' sound more correct._

"N-no," he bit the inside of his cheek, tucking his designs away from his mother's prying eyes. He crossed his arms, brooding, "I haven't."

She had walked into the room, surveying the disaster, and he could sense her standing directly behind him...worry practically coming off of her in waves.

Why did she have to worry so much?

"You should take them. Headaches?"

He shrugged, readjusting his glasses, "The 'medicine' didn't do much."

"They were still there all the time?"

"Well, not all the...yes. Most the time."

Claire watched her boy as he sat in his chair, his legs propped up on the desk in front of him...as much as he tried to appear as a British boy with 'proper' mannerisms, the American lifestyle they lead often influenced his actions. Hence his feet on the desk, instead of the floor.

"The eye doctor didn't think that your eyes were getting any worse."

_Ophthalmologist, actually._

"Maybe I should take you in for an MRI?"

_Lie down on a giant magnet? What for?_

"Mother, that's ridiculous, we couldn't possibly..." he trailed off.

This was how they talked to each other anymore. With his back to her. She wondered why, sometimes. She reached out, about to place her hand on his shoulder, but held back.

He winced internally, sensing her hand coming closer. Sensing it invading some sort of space. His space. Tobey stood up, turning around to face her. His short, thin, frame was comically out of proportion, with his long legs and short stature. It seemed like he should have been tall, but for some reason he had ended up with this odd mixture.

"I'm worried."

"Don't be, Mother, I'm fine," his eyes were locked on the floor, and he ignored that pressing feeling as he sensed her trying to find some way to connect with him.

"You should get that MRI," Claire rose to her full height, towering over her son.

"But, Mother...it's probably just...Puberty or something," he kept his gaze locked on the floor.

_Please, mother, no more doctors. No more weird machines. Please._

"You're going and that's final," she turned, leaving the room, while Tobey threw himself on his bed, pulled some annoying piece of scrap metal out from under his chest and pulled his glasses off. He squinted, being able to make out objects with relative clarity only up to two and a half feet away. After that, everything was a blur. He wouldn't recognize his own mother standing a yard away from him without his glasses.

Apparently it was some sort of novelty genetic thing, his eye problem, since both his father and (paternal)grandfather suffered from the same thing, which the eye specialists still hadn't been able to figure out what it was.

It was a good thing that Claire never forgot his father's family specialist, since that doctor was the only one to figure out which lenses worked for their eyes.

Tobey stared blankly ahead, into the foggy world, hoping that maybe, just maybe, Mother would reconsider. Out of the corner of his eye, it looked as though something were floating. He didn't find it strange though. It was happening a lot, especially in the mornings, when he just woke up, and noticed that some fuzzy thing was floating, just out of his peripheral view. Usually small things, but he could have sworn he saw his alarm clock hovering next to his head one morning. He had jumped up, throwing his arms out in fright that it would fall on him, but he ended up finding it on the floor. He couldn't tell if it had been floating and had fallen, or if he had knocked it off after having an extremely vivid dream. Obviously, he had opted for story number two, making the most sense.

That was probably the reason Mother had taken him to the ophthalmologist in the first place. To see if his headaches and the 'floating' things just outside his vision were related. But the doctor hadn't found anything wrong and had sent them along their merry way.

And now this strange feeling of self-consciousness...and an awareness of other people that was starting to kick in these last few days. He didn't put up much of a fight with Wordgirl because he had felt her frustration, her anger, her irritation rolling off of her...It had hurt, actually, to know how she felt towards him. Not just the words she said, but the actual feelings she had at the time. At first, he didn't know to react, but after a few seconds he had brushed it off as being the frustration taking over.

There was another thing floating.

Nothing made much sense these days. Everything felt like routine, even his battles with Wordgirl, and he could sense her getting tired. Not physically tired, or emotionally, but mentally bored and tired of the same thing over and over. And his mother was the worst.

She was tired of his 'shenanigans', and disappointed. In him, in herself...he could feel it, and he was almost certain it wasn't just him assuming things.

She was so tired...it wore on him, for some reason, to be the one behind her emotional exhaustion. Of course, her being the stoic woman she was, she rarely let her emotions rise to the surface, and yet...

He wasn't exactly sure how to take the whole thing.

Three things in the air now. One sort of looked like a pencil.

And now these headaches. They didn't make any sense at all. They just came one day and had settled in for a long stay. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps there was something seriously wrong with him, but he shook it off, curling up in bed, and kicking a few spare robot parts off to make space. He was tired, and this throbbing headache wasn't helping.

Five things. One fuzzy object looked remotely like his Wordgirl action figure.

He closed his eyes, and thought he heard something fall. Despite the headache, he was able to slowly drift to sleep.

o.o.o.o.o

_He was pushed to his knees, his skin scraping against the bare dirt of his planet, stripped of its life and nutrients by the ancestors of his people. He bravely lifted his head to face the woman he had loved once upon a time, his blue eyes angrily locking into her green-gold ones. She wore the traditional clothing of her people, the skin-tight red and gold cloth complimenting her sturdy figure. She had once, many lives ago, been queen of the foremost nation of her planet, and he, just as many lives ago, had been the chief scientist of his planet. _**He**_ had discovered her. He had tried to unite them, only leading to the depletion of his planet's resources and the near doom of hers._

_But how could she hold a grudge for so many lives? True, the Syndicate had separated her from her husband and placed them both with new spouses in her third life, but her husband had been her cousin. If anything, the Syndicate did them a favor. _

_And it wasn't his fault they ended up together as head of resource management._

_She raised her arm, the weapon that was fixated onto it gleaming in the white sunlight of their shared sun. The weapon was molded to wrap around her forearm, connected to nerve endings and projectiles were fired with mental commands. Her shoulder length hair curled at the ends, cupping her bronzed cheeks._

"_Please don't make me do this," she whispered, green-golden eyes charged with a passionate emotion. _

_Oh, right. She had fallen in love with him, finally, after he had gotten tired of waiting and had given up on her. _**Now**_she loved him, while pointing his death at him._

_Instead, he boldly pressed his forehead to the end of the weapon, though he inwardly trembled. He had never been bold, not before the Revolution. He was timid, and he lurked in the shadows, content to watch _**her**_be the centerpiece. _

_He wore his heart on his sleeve. Yet she had shunned him. Life after life, time after time, she shunned him over and over, only to fall in love near the end, when things were unrepairable. So was their life together._

_Until she changed it in this last one, heading the Revolution against the Society. _**They****,**_ she and he, along with six other couples, had been the Society, each couple the head of a division of the peace treaty between the two planets. But she had wanted her first life husband back. _

"_I'm not making you do anything," he growled back. His people never liked primal actions, but he didn't care. Not after this many lives._

_She faltered, in front of all the eyes of those who gathered around them. _

_This was her test. _

_Her expression becoming stern, she stiffened, preparing to command the trigger...Her arm trembled against her will as the tip of the weapon pushed up the man's blond hair, and the light blue shades that covered his eyes slipped down his pale face. A light breeze from the barren crystalline oceans flew through his clothes, the loose long cloth, pinned shut at the shoulders and tied at the waist. _

_The loose traditional clothing of **his **people, the complete opposite of her tight, all covering clothes. His arms, legs and neck were bare to the world, while she hid everything. Strange how, despite more exposure to the sun, his people were typically paler than hers. Or at least, those that didn't live near the equator._

_She wanted to smile in memory of how _**his**_eyes couldn't stand up for long against an alien atmosphere, how _**they**_always needed corrective lenses. They were lucky that they didn't end up blind. But she couldn't smile. _

_She wanted to fly, far away, and forget everything that had lead them to this point. But it was impossible. His blue eyes, defiant for once, his meekness gone, stared up into hers, and she couldn't. She couldn't command the weapon to do its job. Her arm dropped to her side, her long cape obscuring it from view._

_From all around she could hear murmurs, whispers, judgment. Those people would not remember that the only reason they had overthrown the Society was because of her and her comrades. They would just see the failure of **this** moment. _

_She just condemned them both to death._

o.o.o.o.o.o

Tobey's eyes slowly opened, the dream world and the strangely familiar looking woman fading from his view as his pupils dilated rapidly, trying to find something to focus on in the foggy world. With a yawn, he reached over and slammed his hand down on the alarm clock, disabling the annoying, shrieking radio.

Another school day. He sighed, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He had actually woken up early today, and his headache was gone. For now, anyway. Getting out of bed, he preformed all the required morning rituals that were required of him.

Straightening his bow tie, he slowly walked down the stairs, finding his mother on the phone. Probably scheduling that annoying MRI. He swerved to avoid her, and walked into the kitchen, pulling out a bowl and the first box of cereal that he could grab. Choco Flakes. Ugh.

Not that he didn't like chocolate, but he wasn't a fan of combining it with _corn_ flakes. He rubbed his forehead, the sensation of the odd weapon still mentally imprinted there.

"Headaches?"

Did she always ask that now?

"No."

How hadn't he sensed her before she spoke? He was getting used to sensing people before seeing them. Right now, though, he just wanted to squirm away from her view, and he poured the milk into his bowl, absentmindedly forgetting the chocolate corn flakes as he spooned a mouthful of milk up. Claire sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen, reaching over and pouring the flakes for him as she sat down.

She wanted to talk, he sensed. He didn't like talking unless he was gloating.

"Any new projects at school?"

Well, she tried, at least, he'd give her that much. Suddenly, his eyes flew open.

"Aw, shoot," he ran up to his room, digging out the assignment he was supposed to have finished. Oh, well, if it took him too long, he'd have one of his robots do it.

Sitting back down at the island, writing with his left hand and eating with his right, he was grateful that, ironically, the very subject his mother had tried to use to open communication had just shut it down. Still, he could sense her disappointment in the fact that he had taken so long to get his assignment done. Well, it wasn't his fault it had gotten buried in the mess.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Becky jerked up in bed, eyes wide, confusing emotions running through her. What a weird dream...

Since when did she point _weapons_, of all things, at people? Or maybe that wasn't herself...

Yawning, she noticed it was time she woke up anyway, and, sending a cautious glance out her door, floated out of bed, so as to not wake Bob yet. A tired Bob was a cantankerous Bob, and that was no fun. Landing on the floor, she grabbed her changed of clothes, and quietly raced to the bathroom, knowing TJ wouldn't have woken up yet. The smell of fresh pancakes wafted up to her, and her parent's soft chattering and quiet laughter soothed her. She had to admit, her parents sometimes had a therapeutic affect over her. She wasn't sure why.

She quietly closed the door, undressing and jumping into the shower to wash away the disturbing dream.

It didn't take long for someone to start banging on the door, and she groaned, wondering whether to speed up and let them in, or to drag it out just to annoy them

"_Becky, hurry up before you use up all the hot water!"_

"We use an electric heater, TJ!"

That made him quiet, for a moment. Becky decided not to start the day off on the wrong foot and, using her super speed, flew straight through the shower, towel and into her clothes.

"Done!" she opened the door, wrapping the towel around her wet hair.

"You left the water running!" He glared at her, his freckles scrunching u p.

She glanced back, "Oops. Hurry up, TJ, we have to get to school."

He rolled his eyes, slamming the door behind him. "Whatever, Becky."

"Sheesh, what did I do to him?" she ran back to her room, slipping her family charm bracelet on. It only had one charm on it, a blue dolphin with a tiny 'diamond' for its eyes, the same as her mom's. She was glad that they had finally decided that they'd get different charms for the two ladies and left the shark tooth necklaces to the men. She wasn't too fond of sharks or shark teeth.

She pulled out her finished assignment and gave it one last proofread before tucking it into her backpack and running a brush through her hair. Last night's absentmindedness had been a result of 'losing' Scoops, so to speak, but she wasn't too fazed right now. She might be a bit fazed once she saw him later, but for now she was fine.

"Good morning Becky!" her dad sang out as she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning Dad, morning Mom," she smiled, glancing at the neatly set table and resting her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands.

"Oh, good morning Becky," Sally Botsford placed the maple syrup and butter on the table with her usual can-do attitude, patting Becky's shoulder, "Is something bothering you, sweetheart?"

Becky looked up in surprise, but smiled and shook her head, "No, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh, I don't know, you look a little down. Sure you're fine?"

"Yup." Just trying to get rid of the tangled cobwebs of an old crush. Oh, and now that dream.

"Alright then!" Sally smiled, her brown eyes twinkling merrily as she brought the stack of pancakes Tim had just finished over to the table, "Hon, these look delicious!"

"Thanks, Sally. I used a secret ingredient," he winked, grinning. Becky smiled, glad that her family brought her relief from her difficult double life(although sometimes they were the reason it was difficult).

Someone knocked on the front door, and Becky jumped to her feet, "I'll get it!"

She opened the door to find Violet, still as dreamy and artistic as ever.

"Hi, Becky. I was just wondering if you'd help me with the proof-reading on my assignment. Sorry to come to you so late, I just did some last minute editing and I wasn't sure if it was right," her soft, quiet voice hadn't changed at all either.

"Good morning to you too, Vi," Becky smiled playfully, taking the assignment Violet held under her arm, "Of course I'll help. Come on in, we're about to have breakfast."

"Oh, really? I didn't mean to interrupt..."

"Don't be silly, we don't mind...well, TJ might, but he's always so-"

"Moody?"

"Cantankerous, yeah."

Violet stepped inside, raising an eyebrow, "He has canker sores? No wonder he's grumpy. You know, my Mom was reading up on doing a raw juice fast. They say it clears up the skin, and a lot of health related problems disappear while you're on the fast, including canker sores."

Becky pulled out her pencil, giving Violet an amused look, "That's not what I meant, Violet. Cantankerous means that someone is being stubborn, grumpy-"

"Moody!" Violet smiled proudly.

Becky laughed, "Yeah, that too. I'm done! All around, you did very well Violet. Just a few vowels were switched, but those are easy to misplace sometimes."

"Thanks Becky. See you at school," Violet waved.

"See you!"

0.0000

Well, he was lucky to have ended up with an assignment on what it meant to be a hero. All he had to do was pull out his extensive knowledge on Wordgirl and he had an award worthy assignment. Hopefully he wouldn't have to read it out loud though...His school life was miserable as it was, he didn't need bull-headed apes teasing him. He was certain that the only reason they hadn't already was because he could call a legion of 50-foot tall robots on their heads if they so dared.

Not to mention how much teasing he'd get at the Annual Villain's Convention. Once Victoria Best caught wind of any bit of gossip surrounding him, she'd spread it like wildfire through the villains..

.And now that he was finally getting some respect.

He was early to school today, and the large building seemed comparatively quiet, only a handful of nerds, a couple early birds and some of the Art club were gathered in the hallways. He passed them all with his head held high, giving them a wide berth so as to not be grouped with any of what he considered to be inferior students.

Especially that Violet girl making a beeline towards him. Wait...

"Hey, Tobey," she smiled as she joined him in walked down the hallway.

_Brilliant_, he thought to himself, putting almost four feet of distance between them.

"Hey," he responded curtly. That ought to close the communication lines.

"Have you done the heroes assignment for today?" apparently not. He gave the girl an annoyed look.

"Of course I have."

"Oh," her gray eyes didn't falter, and she pushed on, "Who'd you write about?"

He didn't want to have to answer, but, as she closed the space between them, her earnest eyes seemed to plead for a polite answer, at the very least.

"Well...Wordgirl," he muttered, pulling tighter on the straps of his backpack.

Her eyes widened, and she smiled even sweeter, if that was possible. Ugh, he was drowning in her carefree happiness that was engulfing an area of over four feet all the way around. How could anyone be that happy?

"I did mine on Ina May Gaskin," she chirped, taking her gaze off his face and placing it on her path, relieving some of the tension Tobey felt.

Why did the girl even try? It wasn't the first time she had been friendly with him, and he had always been only borderline polite, since he had no grievances against her. He probably should have gotten used to her by now, but, well, he was Tobey after all.

"Who?" he asked, continuing the conversation, puzzled. He had never heard that name before.

Violet smiled, turning to look at him, "Oh, you'll know after you hear my oral report."

"Oh."

They walked on in silence for a few minutes, before Violet burst into giggles. His gaze jerked up from the floor, causing his large glasses to slide down his nose slightly.

"What now?" there was a slight tinge of annoyance in his voice. Goodness, this girl seemed to be nothing but sunshine and rainbows.

The breezy girl just let out a happy sigh, her eyes seeing other things, "Oh, just thinking."

Tobey raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go.

"Don't you want to know?"

He shrugged, straightening his glasses and turning into the classroom, Violet following and finding her seat.

"I was thinking about how I could just see Wordgirl and Becky sitting in the same room together, talking about all that language and words and whatnot, with such happy expressions on their faces. I'd feel so left out," Violet waved her hand dismissively, a smile on her face.

He sat in his chair, a row away from hers, and heard the rest of the class storming down the hallway towards them.

"And that's funny...how?"

"Well, you, of course. And Becky. You'd be so...what's the word? You know, that look you get on your face whenever you see her?"

That surprised him, "I have a look on my face when ever I see Becky?"

"Oops. I meant Wordgirl."

He raised an eyebrow and decided to oblige her, "Ah. Enraptured?"

"Yeah! You'd be so enraptured by Wordgirl that Becky would start to get annoyed and say something like, 'I define words too! And without super powers!'"

Some of the things she said were hard to follow. He rolled his eyes, "More like, 'Tobey, stop your daydreaming and get the sodium chloride'."

He was, of course, referring to the fact that he and Becky were partners in their chemistry class. Figures, one of the two classes they took together and they ended up partners. It was a miracle they hadn't blown the classroom up yet.

The rest of the class filed in, chattering and ending the two's conversation. At the beginning of the school year, Becky had managed to snag the seat next to Violet, which also happened to be the one next to him. She had tried to barter for him to trade the seat with that _Toad _'Scoops' Ming boy, but he hadn't budged, just to spite her.

It was no secret that he didn't like the Asian boy, although no one had been able to figure out why.

Becky ran in, last to her seat, and avoided looking at Tobey. For a moment, he couldn't figure why. She usually liked to smirk at him, or give him some sort of lecture over something he did, or hadn't done, depending on her mood, but she ignored him completely. It actually sort of offended him, having that school ritual disrupted, until he remembered his attempt at an ice cream cone before going home.

"YOU!" he jumped to his feet, pointing at her in an accusatory manner and she flinched visibly, "You sent me-!"

"Theodore Mcallister!" drat, the substitute teacher just walked in. Tobey's eyes widened and he meekly sat down.

"Explain yourself, young man," ugh, he really didn't like Mr. Barkin...who seemed to be the substitute teacher for _all_ the classes, including chemistry. In fact, this guy was the one who partnered him with Becky.

"It was my fault," Becky spoke up, "I, uh, pranked him before class..."

Tobey sent her a surprised glance, but straightened in his seat. Finally, someone actually-

"I will not tolerate outbursts, Mr. Mcallister!" true to his name, Mr. Barkin shouted out almost every word he said, in a deep, loud voice, "And Miss Botsford, _'prank__i__ng' _is not tolerated on school grounds."

"Actually, it was in the park that she-" Tobey started to correct the teacher, but, realizing what he was saying, cut himself off.

"Well, Mr. Mcallister, since you seem so eager to lecture, why don't you give your oral report first?"

"Uh...No. Why not let Violet go first? She always seems to be a class favorite, unlike Becky with her dreadfully long and wordy reports."

"Hey! They're not wordy!" Becky glared at him. Still, he smirked as she gave her report a worried glance; just the response he was hoping for.

"QUIET!" The whole class jumped, facing the teacher and forgetting any bickering.

"Mr. Mcallister will go first, NO ONE ELSE."

_Brilliant_, Tobey brooded as he grabbed his assignment and walked to the front of the class.

* * *

**Sorry about the weird page breaks, but nothing else seems to work. :/ Anyway, if your reading my author note, YAY! You read the first chapter and struggled through the second! ^^ I applaud you. **

**Thank you for all the reviews! ^^**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey-ho, guys! (sorry, been watching Disney Junior with my little brothers. XP I'm fifteen and I'm still watching shows meant for 2-5 year olds. *facepalm* I'm not ashamed of Wild Kratts or Wordgirl, but 'Jake and the NeverLand Pirates'?)**

**Anyway, Thank you all for your lovely reviews! ^^ Let me tell you, you guys make my day. **

**Well, I'll let you read!**

* * *

Tobey wished Becky would disappear as they walked out of their class. Ugh, that weird look she had on her face was driving him insane. He couldn't tell if she was smirking at him, or smiling in sympathy or what? Besides, since when did anyone send _him _of all people, a sympathetic glance? Maybe his mom, and Wordgirl when she forgot what was going on, and they actually had a conversation, even for a few split seconds, but Becky of all people? And why under the canopy had she tripped him into an ice cream stand?! What had he done to _her_ that day?!

Other than send his robots into the city, but that had nothing to do with her. Ugh, and she was with that snobbish newspaper boy...in a new dress. Tobey had never seen her without her signature clothes, and he raised an eyebrow as they split ways to go their separate classes, suddenly speculating about Becky and the reporter.

He had heard of some of the kids in school were actually dating, but was it possible that Becky was going out with that...dimwitted pretender? The thought just disturbed him for reasons he couldn't place. In fact, it disturbed him so much that he didn't notice all the crescendo of mixing emotions of the others surrounding him that usually had him running to get into his class first and getting a break, even for a minute.

Perhaps he should sent an army of robots to her house today, to get back at her for the ice cream stand. What did 'prank' mean anyway? Why did _she _defend him against Mr. Barkin? Heaven knows, the guy was intimidating. Incredibly so.

He managed to get into his next class last, the one class where the teacher was unusually strict about being on time. Mr. Ratburn raised an eyebrow, and was about to lecture the boy, but remembered that he was usually one of the very first to get into class and decided to let it slip...Just this once.

Maybe not send an armada over to her house, Tobey contemplated, rubbing his forehead as his ever present headache suddenly throbbed harder for a moment. He needed the robots for the next time his mother was absent. Eh, maybe he'd simply give her the wrong chemical in chemistry today, and make the experiment blow up in her face. Or lock her monkey in the janitor's closet? No, the monkey could fend for himself really well...

He suddenly smiled as he remembered scribbling all over Becky's notebook when they were younger. Maybe he could do that again. Enough time had gone by that it wouldn't be _predictable. _Ugh, he really didn't like that word.

.

.

.

The rest of the school day seemed to go by without any dramatic disturbances, although Becky could complain about her chemistry notes being messed up thanks to Tobey scribbling in her notebook when she wasn't looking, and as soon as the school bell rang, Becky was able to single Violet out after avoiding her and Scoops all day.

"Becky, where have you been all day? You weren't at our lunch table," Violet exclaimed as she linked arms with Becky as they often did while walking home from school. Becky shrugged, a painful little twist in her chest as she thought of Violet and Scoops sitting alone together at their table.

"Oh, I was just trying to straighten out my chemistry notes after Tobey decided to ruin them. Ugh, and he has such untidy handwriting. Nothing like yours, Violet," Becky hoped Violet wouldn't ask any further, since the truth was that she was avoiding the two. She didn't feel ready to face Scoops after yesterday.

Violet smiled modestly, "Well, mine is nothing compared to yours. Yours looks like art work, every single space is just right. I just don't know how you can to that so perfectly and not-"

Violet suddenly cut herself off, realizing that she was about to criticize Becky's art work again, something that always dented the bold girl's self-esteem and watched Becky nervously out of the corner of her eye.

"And not what?"

"Um...I don't know how you can do that so perfectly and not, uh, me?"

Becky waved the comment off as her house came into view, "Oh, Violet, like I said, your handwriting is beautiful. Anyway, I've got to get home. I have ten more books to finish before I have to return them tomorrow, and I still have to unscramble the disaster in my notebook."

Violet gave Becky a tiny pout, as a way of complaining about Becky's limited time, before smiling and nodding.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Byeeeeeeee!" The gray eyed girl turned to go, dragging out the sound as she skipped off.

Becky laughed awkwardly, never really getting used to a few of Violet's strange mannerisms. Not that she'd change her best friend for anything in the world, she thought to herself as she waved back, before hurrying into her house.

TJ had already claimed the TV as his for the day, and was making the best of his time with it, trying to beat Bob's high scores as the monkey snoozed quietly in the armchair, the bulge in his belly indicative of his most recent occupation. Becky smiled wryly and hoped there was still _something _left in the fridge.

"Hello, Becky, how was school today?" her dad smiled at her from the kitchen, and she returned it.

"It was okay. English was interesting."

"Really?" Tim smiled, raising an eyebrow as his insatiable curiosity was piqued, "How come?"

Becky shook her head, "Well, you know Tobey? The kid who tried to crush our house?"

"The one that calls himself a farm-able boy genius? Causes destruction all over the city? The one that made that 50-foot tall robot that Bampy defeated?" his thoughts immediately turned to the imaginary giant doughnut from that day. Yum...

Becky bit back a laugh, "Formidable, and that's the one. He read this essay about Wordgirl that I'm ninety-eight percent sure he pulled off the internet, because it's way, way too nice and had absolutely _nothing_ about forcing me-I mean, Wordgirl to go on a date with him or be in love with him...Well, except for one sentence, he mentioned something along the lines of 'being a hero also includes being nice to the villains, and it doesn't mean you cannot like the bad guy'. I'm pretty sure what he means by that."

Tim nodded, having only caught a part of what she had said, since he had to constantly push back the thought of eating a giant doughnut to the back of his mind. With a smile, he decided to humor his teenaged daughter, "Formidable?"

She grinned, her voice taking on the 'definition' tone it always did, "Formidable means something is impressive, or it seems as if it will be hard to take down. For example, Tobey's robots appear formidable, but are actually quite harmless...At least for Wordgirl."

"Ah, okay. Thanks Becky," he suddenly ran back into the kitchen, "Sweet calabash, I forgot my pie!"

Becky raised an eyebrow, before continuing on up the stairs to her room, grabbing the very first book on her stack of twenty-three, and curling up in her bean bag to read, the world around her fading away to be replaced by crystal palaces, sword-bearing princesses and brave brothers fighting side-by-side...To the rest of the world, ten minutes passed by, but to Becky two whole years crawled along, and she placed her finished book down, taking a minute for the story to seep in, to fully soak in her mind and penetrate the farthest reaches of her imagination and to be embedded in her memory.

Eagerly, she reached out for the next book, pouring her all into reading the six part series, pausing at the end of each one, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, just taking time to think over it. Somewhere along the fourth book, her eyes fluttered of their own accord, and her hand slowed, passing the pages slightly slower, then slower still, the pace of a normal human, until it stopped, and her head slowly fell back into a more comfortable position, her eyes closed.

.0.0.0

Tobey managed to creep into his house without having to confront his mother, although he could hear her talking on the phone with someone. More than likely another doctor.

He quietly climbed up the stairs, avoiding all the creaks as only he knew how, and made it into his room without attracting any attention to himself.

He smirked as he pulled his shoes off, remembering Becky's infuriated face when she found what he had done to her notebook. Being ambidextrous came in handy there, as he was able to reach her notebook with ease that most other people wouldn't be able to claim to.

He had math homework to do, but his brain currently felt as though it were bruised something terrible after all day with this headache and he was eager to get into bed and see if it eased it any.

His mother looked into his room a few minutes later, giving her sleeping son a peculiar look before shaking her head. She'd tell him to clean the room on the weekend, since he didn't like for her to clean it, claiming that she put everything in the wrong place.

She knew the real reason was that she took any and all robot designs and hid them from him. She didn't have the heart to throw them away, since she knew the genius they held. She had been a member of Mensa once, and had been a child prodigy herself, yet it was nothing compared to what her son could do. The simplest parts of his robots held ingenuity beyond anything she had ever seen before, and yet the robot's themselves seemed so simple. She sometimes wondered why, if he was so smart, he didn't make his robot's unique, make them stand out instead of using such plain, run of the mill things.

Her son rolled over in bed, muttering quietly for a moment, before becoming silent, his normally frowning face soft and relaxed, the pinker tones in his pale skin standing out as he curled up on top of the bed covers.

She couldn't help but smile gently, her own frown vanishing for a moment, remembering him as a sweet little child curled up in her lap as she worked. Leaning down, she pulled his glasses off his face, tugged the blankets out from under him and lightly placed them over him. Placing the thick rimmed glasses on the bed stand, she straightened his thick hair, feeling as if the sleeping boy in front of her was eons away from her and sighing as she knew there was little to nothing she could do about it at this point in time.

"See you in the morning."

.0.0.0

"_Don't I have a right to my own opinion?"_

Ghostly whispers floated around, swirling in a murky pond as they stared in.

_The planet's single moon floated up above, lighting the lingering plant life a soft blue as it-_

Images, dreams, memories, all things confused and lost in there, swirled around in the pond.

_A soft giggle escaped the child's lips as she was suspended between the gravity of the planet and the gravity of the largest of its many satellites. Someone's arms wrapped around her, bringing her back to the-_

Someone was reaching out to them, trying to connect, trying to bridge with them. A feeling like that of brushing another person's hand intruded the strange place, this suspension of reality and dreams.

_Green and blue, mistrust and probing, dark and fair. They were so different, so vastly different, she could never see him as-_

The suspension broke, and it was as if they woke up, their eyes opening.

_The group of children, hardly more than four years old, crowded against the glass of their home, peering out into the black of space and waiting for their home to turn until they could see the place from which half of them had originated._

_Among the children, it was easy to see that they were different. Half of them were floating in the air, hovering upside down or side ways to poke their heads into the viewing window, chattering excitedly while the other half were planted firmly on the ground, lightly colored hair covering the little heads and blue shades slipped onto their pale faces to aid their deteriorated vision._

_The floating children had mostly dark hair, brown and black with an occasional orange head tossed in, and their skin was dark and amber tinted._

_A cry rose up, "I see it!"_

_Out of the corner of the window, a planet slowly came into view, rings made up of space debris and large radioactive rocks, tinted red by the reflection of the planet's red atmosphere._

_Excited shouts broke out among the children, and their caretakers began to admonish them; some of which could fly just as easily as the children and others with the same powers of mind as the fairer children who tried to 'push' the caretakers into ignoring their mistakes._

_This time, though, the children quieted down, as they wanted to watch the descent into the planet, and cried excitedly as they spotted the large ocean peering around the side of the planet, the green-yellow color dimmed by the red atmosphere._

_The caretakers began to ask them questions, quizzing them on their knowledge of the planet. _

"_The ocean you just saw, what is it called?"_

"_The Ca'asnem Ocean," Theodore responded from the back of his group, the children standing on the ground._

"_And what does Ca'asnem mean?"_

"_Ca'asnem is a Gromantian word, meaning The Overflowing Abundance, the _'Ca'_ part the affix for _one, _or _the;'as' _is an obsolete Old Gromatian prefix for _abundance_ and _'nem' _stands for _overflowing_," a brown haired boy floated above them, his bright brown eyes sparkling with excitement. Theodore knew the boy, Yohan, very well, him being his only friend among all the children._

"_Good, and what planet are we landing on?"_

_The entire group raised up a jumbled answer but one girl fought her way to the front, her green eyes shining and her short, wavy brown hair flying, and Theodore smiled shyly as he watched the pretty little girl._

"_Lexicon!" she shouted above the noise, the first two fingers on her right hand poised above the star-in-shield emblem on her clothes in a gesture of respect and homesickness._

Becky woke up with a pang of longing, gasping as she was pulled out of her dream, a throbbing headache pulsating with each heartbeat.

Lexicon?

She wished she hadn't woken up, despite the fact that it was only a dream. Maybe some hidden memories were deeply engrained in her mind and they were starting to come out.

The headache grew, suddenly engulfing not just the front or back part of her head, but the entire hemisphere, and she moaned in pain. There was no way she was going back to sleep like this.

As she quietly climbed out of bed, stepping over Bob's sleeping body, her thoughts strayed back to the dream. How beautiful the planet looked. The rings glimmered against the light so beautifully, and Lexicon actually had an ocean. Or at least, so her imagination had made it.

What a strange ocean. What a strange dream. What was she trying to work through with that dream?

Some deep seated longing for Lexicon? But she had always felt she had a mature outlook on the whole thing. She would immediately jump for the chance to find her home planet, but it wouldn't haunt her for the rest of her life if she never did. Becky was happy with the life she had, the very human, very normal life she had.

What about those kids? Were they all Lexiconian? Why did they look so different from each other? She suddenly remembered the dream from the night before...That was an entirely different place that seemed to resemble Earth, and she remembered knowing that the person in front of her wasn't her kind. Wasn't one of her people. Maybe some sort of conflict between her allegiances? Maybe she subconsciously felt guilty for _not _being homesick for Lexicon.

Shaking the thoughts away for a moment, she stumbled across the hallway, and into the bathroom, opening the medicine cabinet without giving the mirror a glance and pulling out the Advil, glancing over the instructions for a split second and hoping the human medicine would work on her alien biology.

The fact that she was alien had worried her for the longest time, and she had been terrified that she wouldn't develop like the other kids, and that her cover would have been blown, but other than being a late bloomer, she had developed more or less on the same line as everyone else.

Two little white pills flew into her mouth, and a gulp of water carried them down. She placed the bottle back in the cabinet and closed the door, suddenly freezing when she saw her reflection.

A tiny drop of blood was making it's way out of her nose.

.0.0.0

Tobey woke up slower, not by a headache, but by a persisting feeling that he couldn't breathe, like a stuffed nose during a cold, and he sleepily rubbed his nose, coming away with a very, very moist hand. With a groan, and barely a thought towards the dream, which he decided to ignore, he reached out to his bedside table, opening the drawer and grabbing the very first soft thing he could reach, blowing his nose on it and whimpering because the inside of it felt completely bruised.

Geez, first the headaches, now this.

Begrudgingly, he sat up in bed, turning the lamp next to his bed on and rubbing his eyes in exhaustion. When he was finally able to open his eyes, he shouted, "Holy Madonna!" in shock as his hands were covered in blood. Or at least it looked like blood without his glasses on.

After placing his glasses on properly, he was absolutely certain it was blood. And a lot of it, enough to make him afraid. Without a second thought, he jumped out of bed and crept over to the bathroom, placed inconveniently directly in front of his mother's bedroom, and he winced as he closed the door, hoping not to wake her up and see him like _this._

He'd _really _be getting that MRI if she saw this. He turned to the mirror, looking in horror at the nasty, blood covered mess his face was. It was even in his hair, and more was slowly making its way out of his nose.

A panic was slowly beginning to set in. What if there really _was _something wrong with him? His throat constricted, and he set to washing his face with a conviction that was seldom seen in him except when working on some break-through part for his robots or chasing after his crush.

What if there really was something wrong with him? What if he was dying or going to be turned into one of those pathetic vegetable people? What if he had some sort of cancer, or tumor and had to go through chemotherapy and lose all his beautiful golden locks? It was 'romantic' in a tragedy story about love lasting even through the hard times, but in real life it was petrifying.

Or what if there was nothing wrong with him, and he was just getting worked up over nothing?

Nosebleeds could be a sign of stress...

Strange thing was, his headaches were completely gone.

* * *

**Everyone seems to wonder how Jordan fits into the story...I used to have a much, much bigger plan that included a trilogy where Jordan was completely absent from the middle one and showed up to die in the last one or something, but over the course of a few weeks, my plans have changed so drastically, I'm not even sure if it'll be a trilogy. :/**

**Also, to the reviewer who was worried about Jordan being paired with anyone as Wordgirl, don't worry, I will TRY not to make my OC that Mary Sueish. XD If there's one thing I don't like in my own OCs its when they're paired with the cannons...Which is the entire premise of my other story in the MvA Fandom. -_- I'm such a hypocrite.**

**Anyway, I said that I VOWED no more OCs, BUT, I forgot that included...OCs...I'm sorry, that makes no sense, but the dream people weren't classified as OCs in my head yet and I forgot that my entire A plot was ENTIRELY composed of OCS.**

**Speaking of A plot, I've got like five different plots going on here and I'm not sure if I can handle them all. I've got to guide Tobey into a better person, Becky into being slightly more considerate, BirthDay Girl will have a slightly bigger role later on(no promises on that) and Violet is going to be a completely oblivious and Scoops has to be good enough for her(I'm not pairing that little sweetheart to a person with an "I could care less" attitude, but I love the two together) and somehow I've got to wisen TJ up...And it's not like you can snap your fingers and change someone's personality, especially if it's been set for so long, it has to come as a bunch of different choices and circumstances and I'm not sure I have what it takes to write a story that big and long and it's going to span over a couple of years and it'll probably take even longer to write. *takes a moment to catch her breath* Anyway.**

**Thank you all for reading my story, and if you read through my rant...I'm sorry. XD Thank you once again for all the wonderful reviews. ^^**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi folks! XD Well, I have succeded in making the longest story ever on my pen drive. EVER. This document is 85 KB while all other fifty-three Fanfic documents average 25-36. 21,700 words! 8D I'M SO EXCITED! *bouncing and squealing happily* **

**I really, REALLY hope I finish this story, I really like the overall theme I'm giving it...But this chapter? -.- I wrote three different versions where drastically different things happen and take the story on weird paths, and this is the only one I really liked...and I still hate Jordan's part. XP I REALLY can't write in the first person.**

**Anyway, I'll let you get to the story! ^^ I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Becky sat up yawning, after a long night of restless sleep, running her finger under her nose as a precaution. If there was any more blood, she wanted to know.

Thankfully, the rest of the night had been mostly uneventful, despite a very mild headache.

"What's wrong?"

The soft squeak startled her, causing her to jump as she turned to look at Bob.

After a moment of silent debate, she confessed, "I woke up last night with a nosebleed and a migraine..."

Bob's eyes flew open, and he pulled her down to inspect her, as his fatherly side came out, "And you didn't tell me?!"

"It's just that you looked so very peaceful, and I hate waking you up unless it's necessary..." Becky brushed off his worried hands, shrugging, "I think I'm fine..."

She actually didn't. She was worried, and she knew that he knew as well, from the way he was glaring at her.

"Don't push yourself, today, you hear me?"

"And if Dr. Two-Brains attacks with another plan to turn us into cheese-loving half-mouse people?" Becky smirked, crossing her arms. Bob simply moaned softly, shaking his head.

"You stubborn little donkey."

Becky chuckled, glancing to her bedside clock. She still had a little time before her mom woke up.

"Bob?"

The monkey tilted his head. He knew Becky, and he knew there was something big weighing on her mind. Secretly he hoped it had nothing to do with Scoops or boys in general. That was one part of this stage in her life that he was _not _prepared for. From what he could remember of his life before Earth, his kind was simply born and raised to fly ships. Love and fun(and arguably, food) were not really imperative to them.

"I dreamt about Lexicon."

Whoa. His brown eyes flew wide open. Okay, he was not really ready for that either, but he could handle it...

"Lexicon?"

Becky nodded, running a hand through her messy hair with a soft smile, "Yeah. I-I'm not sure if it was just my imagination running wild, or if I'm sorta remembering things...I always thought Lexicon was completely red with the shield and star symbol on it...But in my dream, there were continents, like here on Earth, and the oceans were...Yellow. Light yellow and a darker color in the deep spots..." Becky slumped slightly. The greatest word wiz in all the planet, and she didn't know how to describe what she saw. Unbelievable...

Bob bit the inside of his cheek, feeling slightly guilty for not having been a little more clear about her home planet.

"Yes, Lexicon had continents and oceans...I can't-"

Her head jerked up, and she fixed her green eyes onto his brown ones, "Was one of the oceans called Ca'asnem?"

Bob's mouth dropped open. Even if subconsciously she remembered things that were said around her as a baby, Ca'asnem hadn't been _called_ Ca'asnem for decades before she was born. And he knew for a fact that Lexiconian people, even the older people who stubbornly held onto the old ways, didn't call it that. He only knew the name because he was taught the geography of Lexicon, and with it the history of the land(not that he remembered most of it).

"Y-yes..."

Becky's expression changed as she smiled wider, "Really? So I'm not just making it up?"

Bob shrugged, staring at the girl in wonder, "I...I guess not?"

"Oh, good morning Becky!" Sally opened Becky's door, whispering so as to not wake the rest of the family up, "Do you want to help me with breakfast?"

Becky sent Bob a happy smile, then jumped out of bed, "Sure, Mom."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"You're gonna be late, Tobey!"

His mother's loud voice interrupted the peaceful, dreamless sleep that he had entered, and his blue eyes flew open as he groaned.

Tobey sat up, rubbing his eyes, when he suddenly remembered last night. His heart suddenly jumped, and his hand snapped up to touch under his nose. He let out an audible sigh of relief when he found it dry underneath.

"Tobey!"

"I'm up!" he yelled, grabbing his glasses and hurrying off to get ready for school.

As he clambered down the stairs to the kitchen, his mother shoved a bowl of oatmeal into his hand while pulling her coat on over her white shirt, "You will have to eat on the way over. Grab your shoes and get in the car."

He sighed, complying as he grabbed his backpack and swung it on, straightening his bow tie as soon as he sat in the car.

The entire drive to school was silent, as Claire simply didn't know how to approach her son, and Tobey sat hunched, trying to avoid connection.

Before they approached the school, she pulled him over for a quick kiss on the forehead (since she knew how he hated for anyone to see her doing that), and straightened his hair as he squawked some sort of complaint.

"See you after school," she stopped in front of the school, and Tobey scrambled out of the car, running off to get into his first class before the tardy bell rang.

.0.0.0

So you're probably wondering what in the history of space balls I've been doing these last few days...

_I've always wanted to say that._

Well, I found out I'm not exactly a perfect replica of Wordgirl...meaning I don't fit in her clothes...meaning they're way too tight in a couple of places.

Which was fine by me, in fact, I was elated...until I found out how very, very, _very _cumbersome breasts are. At least...normal sized ones... And my hair just didn't want to lay slick and smooth. It wanted to poof and curl and frizz like...like the eighties hairstyles.

And my hips felt as though they were bumping into absolutely everything around me, leaving them all bruised-feeling. Didn't help any that the stuff I bumped into got _crushed _in the process.

Either way, I figured I either had to fix the suit myself, which would result in worse disaster than there would be if I accidentally ripped the normal suit while using it, or getting some one else to make it for me. The boots fit though, and so did the helmet. I have to admit, my inner girl was geeking out over those boots. I mean, how cute do they get!

The inner guy, though, was more interested in throwing boulders UP the hill. Forget about throwing them _down_! _Whoo! _Come on dude, fist pump with me, cause this. Is. EPIC.

Back to the suit. I tried snooping about, using the Wordgirl helmet and boots and wearing a robe over everything else and asking for favors because, "Captain Huggy Face accidentally jabbed the needle straight through his finger and it got infected...so he vowed to never, ever again sew anything...Or even touch a needle."

Surprising how many people actually believe you when you lie in Fair City. Even a crazy, whacked up lie like that.

After a bit of snooping, internet searching and getting conned into a seance, I finally found someone who could make the suit for me. Someone called Edna...Mode? Something weird like that, but the suit was supposed to come soon, and for now, I was just spinning around in the chair in front of the Villain Tracker. I could hear if Becky and Bob were coming from a mile off and had a very comfy hiding place in the stuffed toy room for if and when they came. All I needed now was a dramatic way to introduce the new Wordgirl...not that anyone would know the difference. The suit, the nuances, everything she was, I would be. Anything she could do, I could do.

Although it was extremely tempting, I decided not to try and usurp her place in her family. As much as I longed for it, all I would be doing was creating a broken, powerful person with nothing to lose, and that was not something I wanted to fight.

A scuffling outside the ship sent me flying in a panic and I nosedived into my hiding spot with a sound like a whoopee-cushion being thrown forcibly against the wall.

Distantly, muffled by the many layers of stuffing and alien spaceship, a man was calling Wordgirl to come out.

...Oh...right...

Poking my brown head out of the piles upon stacks upon mountains of stuffed toys(some of which mysteriously looked like my own childhood toys) I flew out of the room and up out of the hatch, peering down the side of the ship to the man below. Despite being tucked safely under a thick green canopy of temperate forest without the slightest glimmer of sunlight peeking down upon him, a pair of extremely dark shades sat upon the guy's nose, and he wore an extremely expensive looking black suit.

"M.I.B," I muttered, "Excuse me sir. What are you doing here?"

He held up a bright red and yellow box, with a self-satisfied smile on his face, "Delivery from Edna Mode. She sends her disdain of your former super-suit and her admiration of your new one...also says to lay off the donuts and milk."

I'm pretty sure my face was somewhere between amused, horrified and shocked...how did she know about the donuts and milk?

"Wha-...How did you find me? This is supposed to be the super-secret-super-hide-out that no one knows about!"

The man smirked, "Kid, I specialize in the super secret."

With a confused look, I hovered down to where he was, taking the box from his hands and signing the paper I was given.

"Uh...thanks?"

With that, the man swiveled on his heel, and walked off with some obscure purpose set firmly in mind.

Only then did I realize what he said.

"No...Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," the box was torn open and the suit...if it could be called that, fell out, decidedly more gold than the one before, and a much, much brighter red than the one before. Pulling it out, it turned out to be with a sleeveless strapped top with the Lexicon emblem still comfortably settled on the chest and a pair of shorts, cut in a slanted manner that left the entire midriff exposed. Not exactly my favorite combination...All of the edges were lined with gold colored cloth, and to my surprise another suit slipped out of the box, a sleeveless yellow dress with a red Wordgirl emblem that came to mid thigh with red leggings.

Once the boots fell out of the box, the suit problems faded away with a squeal as my eyes were filled with red and stars and gold.

Gosh, I guess I really do lean more to the girlish side. Gushing over shoes, who would've thought...although that might have been Becky's genetic personality popping up...

I had two options. Go out half undressed, or go out in a mid-thigh dress and leggings...Half undressed, I decided. It wasn't actually anything _morbidly _indecent, and it'd show off the nice musculature structure I'd recently inherited.

Becky was actually pretty stocky, nicely built and at the same time, perfectly feminine...hence my bruised hips...Either way it didn't matter, both suits were made to...show off, basically...Plus, I absolutely LOVED those boots!

.0.0.0

Becky sat down quietly in her history class, with time to spare before the teacher came in. Sending a glance around to the few students already in there, she pulled out her sketch book, giving some of her former drawings an exasperated look as she searched for an empty page. Finding one, she began to scribble, trying to recreate the spectacular images imprinted in her mind from her dream...with a school pencil. She let out a sigh as her attempts fell flat, but continued on.

In her concentration, she didn't notice as Mr. Barkin marched in, even as his loud voice announced that, "I will be in charge of this class today instead of Mr. Kent due to an unfortunate exposure to radiation he encountered on a field trip to _The Daily Planet _headquarters in Metro City. Now! Open your books to page 207 and-"

A sudden _"whoosh!" _interrupted Mr. Barkin, and shocked Becky out of her stupor, as all the students jumped up excitedly to point at the fading light trail next to their class window.

"It's Wordgirl!"

"That's impossible," Becky whispered, jumping out of her chair and rushing to catch a glimpse of whatever left the red light trail. She groaned slightly.

_I bet Lady Redundant Woman is back...It's been a long time since she's done anything. Couldn't she wait to make an evil clone of me until school was over?_

Hopefully, she could at least finish this class before something drastic happened.

Tobey also noticed the light streak as he sat in his class, and a dreamy look came over his face as he imagined that his crush had been checking in on him; a bit of light gently poured into the dark crevasses of his heart and mind. So much time lately had been spent on feeling sorry for himself, but a single thought of Wordgirl brightened the dark clouds over his head.

He liked to think he didn't love an idealistic (And hence, imaginary) Wordgirl. He wanted her as she was, fiery and smart-mouthed, self-confident and impudent, kind and sweet as she was. The only reason he demanded anything more was because he felt as if she didn't even want to see past his wall of arrogance and occasional simplicity (he couldn't bring himself to _actually _insult himself yet) to the part of him that was just as vulnerable and caring as hers.

He had even tried being good a few times! But, as the saying went, a man with one leg is destined to fall. Having only doubters who second guessed every move he made and no one to support his decision, no one to cheer him on or guide him, his attempts had deflated quickly.

As the teacher droned on about something to the 50th power being multiplied by something to the 7th power, Tobey's heart ached for something he didn't know, and although he immediately tried to squelch the feeling and would forever deny it, his lip trembled slightly as a single tear brimmed the bottom of his eye.

Surprisingly, the rest of the day continued without there being any alarms ringing like there normally was. Becky felt almost uneasy that there hadn't been _anything _wrong today, but managed to relax when Violet caught up to her, giving her a hug.

"Scoops told me what happened between you two," she breathed, giving Becky a sympathetic look.

"Oh?" Becky's voice became monotone as she tried to avoid the crushing ache that came, "So...he told you about...?"

Becky motioned between Violet and a far off Scoops, leaving her clueless friend terribly confused.

"...What?"

Becky suddenly realized that she had probably said too much, and bit her lip, "Oh, never mind that! Uh, oh, look at the time! Hehe, I uh, have a, uh, clone to-I mean, a, uh cyclone paper to finish...A paper about cyclones."

Violet blinked her large gray eyes blankly, "Uh-"

"See you later!" Becky spun on her heel quickly, leaving Violet behind to pout.

"You never spend time with me anymore," she whispered quietly, although without resentment.

Becky, meanwhile, hurried home, grabbing an apple off the counter to munch on, casting a glance into the living room where her family was crowded in front of the TV as she marched on up to find Bob. Tuning into the TV with her super-hearing, she wasn't too surprised to hear that "Wordgirl" had been active today. What did surprise her was that Wordgirl had just stopped a bank robbery.

Shouldn't her evil clone be _causing_ bank robberies?

"Bob!" she poked her head into her room to find Captain Huggy Face waiting for her outside her window. She smiled, transforming into Wordgirl as she walked to the window, "You know me well."

He shrugged with a self satisfied smile.

"Flying high above the city, Wordgirl searches for her mysterious, crime fighting doppelganger."

"Hmph. I bet she's the one causing the crimes," Wordgirl frowned, then suddenly smiled up at the sky, "Hey, where have you been, Narrator?"

"_I showed him the book full of screenplays that my Grandpa has. Kept him busy for a long time."_

"Half of them were in Spanish," the narrator mumbled. Wordgirl laughed.

"You found his weakness then," she smirked.

"_Yup!" _the author smiled proudly, _"That and candy..."_

"Hey!" the narrator threw his arms up, "You're giving out all my secrets!"

"Hhhheeeelllllppppp! Whammer is whamming the whams at the wham store!"

Wordgirl rolled her eyes, flying down to the man panicking on the sidewalk, "Uh, excuse me? Could you say that again, with out all the 'whams'?"

The man took a deep breath, "Sorry, it's just so contagious. Whammer is stealing the beds at the bed store!"

Wordgirl gave Captain Huggy Face a questioning look. He shrugged.

"Don't ask me."

"Wait...this isn't the police station," the man suddenly seemed to realize. Wordgirl smiled and rolled her eyes again.

"Nope. It's two blocks down and left from the new copy shop," she jumped back up in the air, pausing before taking off, "Hey, thanks!"

Not surprisingly, the other 'Wordgirl' was already at the scene, chatting up the burly Whammer. Becky scoffed at the updated suit and wild hair the girl was sporting. Was this imposter trying to ruin her reputation in a more subtle way?

"Aw, come on, bud. You know you wouldn't like someone to take something you worked very very hard to make without giving you something in return," the red lips curled upwards in a sympathetic smile as the shapely young woman stood in a tough, unaffected manner. Wordgirl (the real one) smiled, and grabbed a nearby bucket that just happened to be handy, sneaking up behind the other girl.

"Uh, no. The Whammer would wham the thief so hard, he would drop his whammer, yeah!" Whammer smiled his childish grin, lifting his fists in victory, only for 'Wordgirl' to pull them back down.

"Exactly! Except this guy you are taking stuff from can't wham the thief! Is that fair?"

Whammer glared, raising his fists again, "No! The Whammer will make it fair! YEAH!"

Wordgirl exchanged looks with Captain Huggy Face, who hummed in respect. Not many people would have the patience to work Whammer into a good mindset. Wordgirl harrumphed, glaring at Captain Huggy Face before reaching out and dumping the entire bucket of water on the imposter's head.

"Gah!" the girl spluttered, wiping the water out of her eyes and jumping into the air. She spun to glare at the person who had just doused her, only to jump back in shock.

"Who are you?" the imposter pointed at Wordgirl in an accusatory manner, "Another one of Lady Redundant Woman's clones?"

Wordgirl crossed her own arms, "I was about to ask you the same thing!...Except I know you're not Lady Redundant Woman's, otherwise the water would have turned you back into paper."

The green eyes of the other girl's widened in confusion, then narrowed in determination.

"Alright, I don't know where you're from, or why you're wearing my old suit, but prepare to be taken down!" with that she tackled Wordgirl, taking her off guard and sending both of them flying through the ceiling and up into the sky.

Whammer watched the two grow small in the sky through the hole they left, crossing his arms grouchily, "Now the Whammer is confused. What is the Whammer s'posed to wham if Wordgirl is whamming herself?"

"Let me go, you crazy look-alike!"

"You're the fake!"

Wordgirl growled, struggling to break the other girl's grip as they rocketed high, high into the sky, kicking and hitting as hard as she could, only causing the other girl to cry out when her fist hit her nose, causing the imposter to bleed a little. Okay, not a robot either.

Captain Huggy Face shrieked as they left the atmosphere, quickly pulling his space helmet on as he held on for dear life. Becky broke free, but the force with which the young woman had flown them out with sent both of them crashing into the rough, rocky surface of Mars with a thundering crack. The other girl groaned, sitting up and straightening her helmet, suddenly finding herself pounced upon by both Captain Huggy Face and Wordgirl.

"Ow, ow, okay, okay, I give!" she held her bare arms up in resignation, causing Wordgirl to smile. A sudden cry broke out of the other girl's mouth as she lurched into Wordgirl's stomach, head butting her with all her strength, causing Becky to lose her breath as she was sent flying into a rock formation. Panting, the doppelganger stood over the gasping Wordgirl.

"Becky Botsford," Becky's eyes flew open in shock as she stared at her doppelganger in fear, who glared down at her with her own green eyes and delicate eyebrows, "I am not your enemy. I know who you are, and I can demolish your world with one simple sentence, but you will find that I will not. I will respect you, but I will take over the duty of Wordgirl in your life. Trust me, I will not be this careless in future encounters, and it will probably be a challenge to actually see me in person again. But remember that I am not your enemy."

With that, the girl took off, leaving a bright red light streak as she headed for Earth.

.0.0.0

"She's an exact replica!" Wordgirl stormed around her spaceship, glaring at nothing in particular as she brainstormed...or tried to. Her frustration was making it hard to concentrate.

"I mean, how else could she know who I am?" Wordgirl grasped at strings, trying hard to figure out how to find this doppelganger and get answers from her. Over two hours were wasted flying over the city tuning into each person's voice to try and find the imposter's voice, but she had come up empty. Even checking every possible spot for a crime to happen, there had been no sign of the girl, even as new reports filled the TV screens of daring rescues that 'Wordgirl' had preformed. Wordgirl grumbled. Why was it that nothing had started happening _until _this doppelganger showed up?

Captain Huggy Face was pretty much ignoring her as he kept an eye on the Villain Tracker, hoping to catch a crime before Word-fake showed up and surprise her there.

Wordgirl sighed, plopping down in her oversized chair and taking her gloves off, suddenly noticing specks of blood on one of them.

"Wait," a light bulb finally flashed on, "If it's an exact replica...Then there's only one person who would have the resources to do this!"

In her excitement, she flew straight out of the spaceship, forgetting Captain Huggy Face...Again.

"Dr. Two-Brains?" she pounded on the door to her frenemy's evil lair, "Open up!"

With a yawn, the door was opened, and Dr. Two-Brains smiled at his old friend, "Oh, hey Wordgirl. I haven't done anything bad recently, so what's this about?"

Wordgirl pointed an accusatory finger at him, "Did you make a clone of me with your old research notes?"

Dr. Two-brains stared in surprise, "Wait...What? No, I haven't had access to Steven's old research for years...So, clone trouble, huh? I saw the new suit in the news."

He chuckled, shaking his head, "I thought it was strange that _you _of all people would wear something like that."

Wordgirl sighed, rubbing her elbow,"But still..."

"You know, I was thinking about getting them back a few years ago, after our old friend resigned from his job," he mused, rubbing his chin as his whiskers twitched, "But some Dr. Mc-something guy got them...I think I still have his address somewhere. Would that help?"

Wordgirl smiled, "Seriously?"

Dr. Two-Brains grinned, "Anything for an old friend...except turning good again."

He shuddered at the thought as he disappeared into his piles and piles of junk, emerging a minute afterward triumphantly holding a rather scrawny, beat up notebook. With a soft ripping sound, he tore out a page and handed it to her.

"Thanks!" she waved before taking off into the city. Flying through the streets and gathering a few strange glances on the way, she sighed heavily, the wind whipping in her ears giving her a moment of 'silence' to enjoy. Life had been weighing heavily on her, just as it was on TJ, her double-duties seeming to compound the feeling.

"I suppose that's what happens when you grow up," she whispered to the wind, watching the buildings begin to grow shorter as she reached the suburbs. Slowing as she approached the address, she ignored the nosy neighbors as they poked their heads out of their perfect yards and perfect houses, stopping in front of a run down old brown house.

"Huh..." she stared at the bright green grass in the yard, growing tall enough to bow its long thin heads over the edge of the fence. Green paint was slowly peeling off of the wooden fence and a rickety old gate stood wide open, beckoning her in. Pulling her lips to the side in hesitation, she reminded herself that she was Wordgirl. She had super-strength, super-speed and she didn't need to-

"Hello, dear," an educated British voice suddenly jerked her out of her thoughts.

She jumped up into the air, just barely biting back a shriek of surprise as she turned to look at the voice behind her. A tall (very tall, she thought with surprise) old man stood behind her, leaning heavily on a dark wooden cane. He smiled at her, his dark blue eyes sparkling in amusement behind the heavy rims of his round glasses, his thick white hair lazily swept to the side.

"You seem quiet for one who loves words, my dear," he smiled benevolently, and Wordgirl decided his accent wasn't _quite _British. It sounded...different, _peculiar_ somehow.

"Oh...I'm sorry, I just wasn't expecting...you...there...Uh, do you know who lives here?" she puffed out her cheeks for a moment, running her hands over her helmet to her hair.

"I do," he walked past her, his loose dark sweater hanging from his thin frame, looking back at her, "Well? Come along then."

"Right..." she smiled for a moment at the double meaning in his first sentence, then paused apprehensively before walking in, sending glances at the overgrown yard, suddenly noticing hundreds of little wildflowers throughout the grass, and tiny birds flitting between the grass stalks, "Hm..."

She suddenly liked the yard.

"So, I see you have questions for me," he placed his hand next to the door as he unlocked it, "so go ahead and ask away."

Wordgirl stopped just outside the door of the run down house, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh, uh, yeah. You have Prof. Steven Boxleinter's old research on me, right?" she twiddled her thumbs, looking into the spacious living room. It was tidy and open, unlike the yard outside, and books covered every inch of the wall, only stopping for the windows. Large plush chairs and a couch were aligned linearly to the walls of the room.

"Ah, yes. Come in, come in," he waved her in, and she reluctantly complied, glancing around.

"Wow. This place is bigger than it looks outside," she rubbed her elbow.

"Looks can be deceiving..." the man limped off to the corner of his living room, pointing to a shelf entitled 'Wordgirl/Lexicon', "There is all of your old friend's research, my dear."

"Well, actually, I'm here to investigate-"

"The imposter that is flying around the streets?" he grinned, his glasses tilting slightly.

Wordgirl twiddled her thumbs uneasily, "Yeah. How did you know?"

He raised an eyebrow, titling his head to the side and ignoring her question, "I make you feel uncomfortable."

"Uh..."

"It's alright, dear, most people do. I seem to fall into a sort of uncanny valley for some reason," he chuckled warmly.

"I, uh...You...look familiar. Have we met before?" she tried to change the subject.

He shook his head, "No, dear, we haven't met before."

"Hmm.." she looked at him closely. Those eyebrows...that nose...He seemed very familiar somehow, but she couldn't put her finger on who he was.

Wordgirl cleared her throat, uncomfortable again, "Anyway, I, uh, needed to know if you would have any way to create a clone of me..."

"Of course! Fly around, investigate everything in the house, absolutely everything," he pulled a book down from the shelf, flipping through it non-nonchalantly while Wordgirl stared in surprise. Who would invite a perfect stranger to poke around in all their stuff?

Awkwardly, she began to poke around the house, keeping an eye open for secret doors. She still occasionally wished she had super-vision, knowing the asset it could be...Plus, it was fun to play with.

A sudden eerie howl rang through the house, and she spun around, fists up, ready for anything that was thrown at her...until something hissed at her from above. Looking up slowly, she was met with a reptilian dog-shaped creature walking on the ceiling of the hallway.

With a shriek, she flew backwards down the hallway, and crashed into the door with a loud '_THWUMP'_!

"Ow!" brushing her yellow cape off her head, she stared at the door in shock. Shouldn't she have broken it?

"Oh, dear. T'sali, come down from there. You're scaring our guest," the old man poked his head out of the living room, scolding the creature.

It whined, and jumped down from the ceiling, "I'm sorry..."

Wordgirl jumped back into the air in shock. Of all the animals she had come in contact with, only Captain Huggy Face was able to talk to her, "It, it talks!"

The man raised an eyebrow, turning his blue eyes onto her, "I didn't hear him."

"W-well, then it talks like Captain Huggy Face!" she suddenly realized that she had forgotten her sidekick...again.

The dog-reptile shrugged, walking up to her, and she suddenly noticed bat like claws on the first and last toes of it's feet, hooking under the paw, probably how he had been walking on the ceiling. The two middle toes had formidable looking catlike claws, although they had been clipped, and it's scales were green and gold speckled over black. A wide chest cavity with strange holes between the forelegs slowly expanded and contracted with each breath, and bright brown eyes peered at her from a narrow face. In some ways, it sort of resembled an earless, furless greyhound.

"Uh...what is it?" she stayed in the air just out of reach, "And what is your door made of?"

The man looked at the creature, who cocked his head at him, "T'sali was...a scientific experiment that was going to be put down where I used to work. I saved him, and never regretted it. He's never given me much trouble..Well, except the time he ate my entire patch of bamboo in the back yard."

T'sali whined, "I was teething!"

"You're a herbivore?" what the man said still didn't explain the door, and she began to feel there was a lot more involved in this man and his house than he let on.

T'sali seemed to grin, rows of sharp teeth lining his jaw, "These teeth deceive you."

She cringed, feeling the hair on the back of her neck rise, "Yup..."

"I haven't had access to a lab in years, dear," the man continued, "Even if I did, I don't think there's a lab on Earth fully equipped to create a clone that advanced in age."

"Wait...what?" Wordgirl kept her green eyes on T'sali.

"The DNA would have had to have been imprinted on an already grown subject," he mused, "Even if they started the clone the moment you landed on Earth, there would have been countless mishaps before they got one right, and that one would probably still be younger than you, no matter what aging processes they used...Unless the aging process wasn't from Earth..."

Wordgirl sighed, "I'm not sure I caught your name, Mr...?"

"Walter," he grinned at her after a pause as he came out of his musings, "Just call me Walter, dear."

"Right...Walter, uh, how do you know that?" she crossed her arms.

"Why, because I know quite a lot about cloning! And Earth technology, as it goes..." Walter patted T'sali's head, "Ah, you know what? How about I help you with this endeavor? I'll manage all the scientific things you and your sidekick might have trouble with."

Wordgirl was heavily inclined to say no...But...In all honesty, the man hadn't actually done anything suspicious...Biting the inside of her cheek, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I'll let you consult...But first, I need to know you're qualified."

He smiled widely, reaching behind her to open a door. Wordgirl's eyes flew open. It seemed like hundreds of certifications and degrees and awards were hung on the walls of the room, the seals gleaming as the light hit them.

"I'm convinced."

.0.0.0

Tobey was marching home, lost in deep thought and relaxed, perfectly fine with not being a dastardly boy villain today and enjoying being alone when she danced up to him.

"Hello Tobey!" Violet sang as she twirled. His acute sensing ability suddenly kicked into overdrive, and her dreamy, airy persona engulfed his darker, moodier soul. This girl was _way _too happy to be human.

He didn't answer, hoping to not encourage her, immediately sensing the drop in her tenuous emotions...and, secretly, he felt slightly guilty about it...especially since her emotions were transmuting themselves onto him as if they were his own...

"Hi..." he droned, being as minimalistic in his politeness as possible. Her happiness jumped...and Tobey was beginning to notice he _liked _feeling happy for no reason. Oh, bollocks...He pulled his metaphorical cloud of darkness around him tightly, hoping it wouldn't be chased away by the happy little blonde.

"So, Becky is busy today, and Scoops is writing up his new article, so I've got the rest of the day completely free," she started, hoping he'd catch her drift. She had seen him walk off alone after school, and an amazing idea sparked in her mind; Tobey was always a loner, always by himself, usually by his own choice, and today was no different. Violet was also alone, but she was a social person, and she _needed_ to interact with people, and she assumed, that no matter what he said, Tobey needed it too, so she was on a mission to befriend him. But he sort of seemed to be rejecting her.

"So?"

"So we're both alone...walking home...under the bending arms of the grand oak trees that line the front of the Baskerville's mansion, with gentle sunlight filtering down on us and gently caressing our skin," she looked up at the grand trees, sighing in pleasure. Tobey gave them a sideways glance, almost huffing at Violet's ignorantly poetic rant...but he saw it. He could see the beauty that was making her heart swell with so many emotions...

"So what do you suggest we do?" she broke into his sudden trance-like state, and he raised an eyebrow at her, shoving the thoughts to the back of his head.

"_'We'?_" he crossed his arms. Violet nodded, "Yes, we."

"..." he stared at her. It had been so long since he had actually _been_ with another person, doing something with them. Would it be too hard to shed his normal 'bad boy' shield and his dark cloud and simply be...normal?

"I don't want to do anything," he mumbled, pulling the cloud closer, tighter around him, glaring at the road in front of him. Violet's happiness deflated, although, she didn't feel bad or anything. Just...flat.

With a groan, he grabbed both sides of his head in frustration, before spinning around and facing the skinny little blonde with a halfhearted glare, "Fine, you win. How about we go...to Pizza Planet?"

Violet's grey eyes lit up with joy, and she squealed, jumping and hugging him, "Yay!"

A heavy blush suddenly spread itself across Tobey's cheeks, and he quickly pried the girl off of him, "Let's keep physical contact to a minimal degree. Alright?"

She laughed, nodding, "I'm not sure what exactly you said, but okay."

Tobey rolled his head back. He was certain he was going to regret this.

Pizza Planet was a few blocks out of their way, and Tobey winced at his sore feet when they finally got to the green and black outer-space themed pizza restaurant, while Violet was still floating on air, chattering on and on about Scoops and Becky and all sorts of junk. Tobey was positive he now knew about 0.00001% more about Becky and Scoops than before, after nearly half an hour of non-stop chatter about them.

"We're here!" he exclaimed, half relieved...until he saw the look on her face. She stared at the building with such quiet, excited abandon, he was certain she was going to-

"Come, come!" she grabbed his hand, yanking him in past the robotic guards and the litter and the squealing children, into the large game room full of video game noises, screaming children, music, overlapping chatter and the smell of fresh pizza, cheesburgers and sweat. With a cry of surprise, he stumbled after her, finding himself shocked that Violet, of all people, would like _Pizza Planet. _There were so many games where the only objective was to kill invading aliens, or alien fleets or...just a lot of alien killing. He knew for a fact that Violet didn't like death or...anything like that. He had sort of expected her to back out once she got there.

Still, she yanked him up to a two player spaceship, sat him on the left and took the main controls. Hunched over them with a pleased smile, she said, "We are on a peace mission to the planet Baab, but we're being stopped by ships from the planet Gnarlach! Our objective is to get past the Gnarlach's ships _without _destroying them. We have three charges in our plasma guns, only to be used either for signaling for help from planet Baab, or to send a warning shot at a Gnarlach ship. Points are taken away when you shoot directly at a ship, and it's game over if you destroy a ship."

Tobey stared at the girl, slightly apprehensive, "You've been here before."

"Yup. Becky brought me and swore never to return. I liked it though."

"...And why do we need two people?"

"Two ships in double-player mode," she smiled at him, grabbing his arm. He blushed again, not used to so much contact, "And you get the blue one!"

"...Right..." he slowly wrapped his hands around the controls on his side, suddenly getting very uncanny deja-vu. Violet popped in the quarters, and Tobey nearly cried out as the ship rose off the ground about two feet, gripping the controls tightly as he was tilted upwards. Yellow letters on the screen counted down for blast off, and he became even more uneasy as the computer graphics, combined with motions of the machine he was sitting on, simulated blast off.

Violet grinned as they were 'launched' into Gnarlach planetary space, and her graphic 'ship' began to maneuver with surprisingly good dexterity, avoiding the laser beams being shot at her.

Tobey...tried, he did, but after being shot at ten times, taken down twice and with only two more lives to go, he gritted his teeth in frustration as Violet was clearly winning. Suddenly, on his screen, the mother ship rose in front of him.

It was mostly a run-of-the-mill cartoon mother-ship, but he suddenly couldn't breathe. A crushing, overwhelming, primal fear kept him frozen in his seat, losing oxygen as the 'ship' was fired on.

He wasn't sure how, but he somehow ended up on his knees on the floor, the game still running, fighting for air against his clamped throat, as the fear held a tight grip on his chest.

He could hear, dully, Violet calling him, and was surprised to find her pulling his face up to look at her.

Trembling she pushed his hair out of his face, "Listen, listen, listen. You need to calm down. Think of something you really like."

Wordgirl was the first thing that came to mind, but he was unable to concentrate. His lungs burned as if they were on fire, and he could hardly think. Grabbing onto her shoulders, he shook his head.

"Th-th-then, look at me," Violet pulled his face up to look at her, "Just...think of flowers. Think of...when you were little and the whole world was so big and scary and fun all at once, and you wanted to get out there and try everything and nothing could stop you."

Tobey stared into her gray eyes, brimming with things she couldn't put into words, things that...He...understood.

With a gasp, he was able to breathe again, and he collapsed onto his back with relief, groaning softly as his lungs ached with the sudden intake.

Violet collapsed as well, hands placed over her heart with a sigh of relief as the fear of what had just happened caught up with her, "That...was the most terrifying and amazing thing that has ever happened to me."

After a moment of silence(and getting stared at in reproach by several strangers) he sat up, straightening his glasses, "Can we just...get something to eat now?"

Violet broke out of her daydream, sitting up, "Yes. And you're welcome."

Although it took him a moment to bring himself to say it, he mumbled, "Thank you."

She stood up, brushing her short blonde hair behind her ear, "What happened to you?"

Tobey shook his head, his eyes locked onto his shoes, his accent breaking momentarily, "I...don't know..."

They ate slowly in silence, Violet sending him strange glances every now and then. Tobey sighed, fiddling with his straw.

"Don't...don't tell my mom," he finally spoke up. Violet cocked her head to the side.

"But...why?"

"She always worries about me all the time and this...it'll just...make it worse," he fiddled with the onion he had picked out of his hamburger, glancing up at her, "So...why do you like that game so much?"

She giggled, "It's the only one here that takes points _away _for killing aliens. I guess...I dunno. But I still like going to the park better. It's so much more liberating for the soul to be out in nature."

He scoffed. Although he secretly admired nature from a distance, he really, really hated actually being _in _it. Too many bugs and diseases and poop of all kinds. And mud...

"So...what about you?" his sensing kicked in again, and he could feel Violet's innocent curiosity probing at him.

"What about me?"

Violet shrugged with a smile, "Oh, I don't know. Tell me everything you want to tell me about you. I want to get to know you like a best friend."

He looked away, not being able to fight down the rising bit of hope and joy, despite the little devil on his shoulder screeching something awful, "Friend?"

"Yeah. I saved your life," she giggled, "I might as well get to know you better."

"You saved my life?" he smirked, raising an eyebrow as Violet laughed, half guessing what was coming next, "That's not how I remember it. No, no, you see, you were the one..."

* * *

**So...XD There were a LOT of hidden refrences to other movies and stories and stuff...It's actually kinda fun to put those in! Kudos to the person who gets them all!**

**Also, I'm trying really hard to make the characters believable, but I keep finding myself coming up short. *pouts* I can't get Violet right, OR Tobey. He's all snobby and his ego is huge, but I just can't get it right, cause I'm not quite snobby or rude(not on purpose, anyway) and Violet is all butterflies and rainbows and art and poetry and I am NOT butterflies and rainbows and poetry...I'm more like Becky, I like some stuff a lot, and I get down in the dumps, I do let things get to my head occasionally, but I try to be humble...**

**-.- Point being, I don't think I got ANYONE in character here...XD But I kinda like the way I introduced Walter and T'sali.**

***Ahem* I realize I've been ranting. **

_** KimDWil71: **_**XD You'll just have to read on to see! ^^ And thank you. ^^ You are an amazing reviewer. *hugs***

_** casrules401: **_**Well, no, not if you know how to manage the OCs and the Cannons. I've read many great fanfics with tons of OCs, and I've loved them because the writer manages OCs and Cannons equally, but I have a hard time doing that. :/ So I decided to try and write a story with out OCs...and now I realize that the storyline I made NEEDS a lot of OCs. XD Thanks for the review!**

** _IsabellaWinxSirenix: _XD Yeah, I had fun with the Arthur refrence. You'll probably find a ton more refrences in this chapter, although not to Arthur...I'm glad you liked the dream! I'm trying to make sure every time I introduce Lexicon or its sister planet, it's either setting background, or has something to tie into the overall arch of this first volume, and I'll eventually reveal the entire story at the end. O.o You did what in 5 months? o.o Whoa. Well, uh, it takes me longer to write that many words because I have a very busy busy life, and I get stuck a LOT. YOu think I got Becky and Violet right? Thanks! I was worried while writing that...*faceplant on desk* I bet this chapter will probably ruin that opinion. XD And yup, around 5 plots...(And if my mind continues churning the way it is, I'll have seven. XD I already have an idea for another plot later on in the story) I sincerely hope I can stay motivated and inspired during that time. 'XD I'll be amazed myself if I can.**

_** SuperOreoMan: **_**XD Yup, Wordgirl is completely 'activated' but Tobey isn't...quite. (*hinttowardsfutureplotpoint*) XD And yeah, don't worry, I don't like Jordan that much. XD I'm eventually going to kill her/him off in the future, although, I'm not saying how. *zips lips* Except that I'm planning to make it plenty sad. XD Yeah, there are going to be other WG villians! I love all the villains(except for the other Meat shooter guy that was against the Butcher or something...) And yeah! Either we've read the same fanfic, or Dr. Two-Brains actually did that in the show.**

**ANYWAY, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and didn't suffer too much my terrible ranting. XD TTFN!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hallo, everyone! ^^ This chapter is...:( I tried. I've written it and re-written it over and over, and I'm not sure if it's okay to introduce some of the things that I am already, but this chapter wrote itself. It's funny, because I just sat down, and it wrote, I erased and started over, and pretty much the same thing came out every time, with some differences of course...Anywho! XD I'll let you all get to the story and stop bothering you. XD**

* * *

Claire worked quietly at the dinner table, filing old cases and paperwork with her signature frown on her face.

The paperwork and cases had absolutely nothing to do with her frown, those things being the very least of her worries.

The front door creaked open and she looked over her glasses into the hallway, waiting for her son to sneak by before speaking.

True to her suspicions, Tobey attempted to sneak by, his backpack clenched tightly to his chest as he tried to avoid any creaky boards.

"Tobey."

He cringed, his eyes slowly moving to meet hers, "Hi."

He dropped any pretense of sneaking by, pursing his lips in defeat.

"Hi," she raised an eyebrow, as she continued to sort the papers in swift, sweeping motions. Tobey's left foot twitched impatiently, wishing to get any sort of reprimand or lecture over with quickly.

"You're late."

He knew that meant she wanted him to explain, and he bit the inside of his cheek, "Uh, well, Mother...I was...out. With Violet."

The sounds of paper immediately stopped as Claire looked up at her boy as if he had claimed to have inherited City Hall.

"Violet?" she asked out of disbelief, not because she didn't know the girl. Nearly everyone had heard of the shy little aspiring artist from somewhat frequent articles in the Daily Rag about some new award she had earned the school or about how she was painting a mural for the Mayor of Fair City, and if she recalled correctly, the girl had also been in the same daycare as Tobey when they were younger.

No, she simply couldn't believe Tobey of all people would actually have spent time with another _human_ being.

"Tobey, I don't tolerate lying in this house."

Tobey rolled his eyes, "I'm not lying, Mother. Not this time anyway. Go ahead and call her, _she's_ not a liar..."

Claire harrumphed slightly, still astonished. Scrutinizing her son in such a way that he squirmed under her eyes, she decided to trust him, not really wanting to pick another fight tonight. Tobey's slight defiance had died down, and he was meek as he stood before her.

"...Alright," he looked up in surprise, "Just tell me next time. I don't appreciate having to worry where you are."

Tobey mumbled something, and she quickly raised her eyebrows. Having been raised under his mother his whole life, he knew that every single expression she made carried a specific meaning, this one in particular scolding his bad habit of mumbling.

"I was only at Pizza Planet..."

"You ate," she stated as she stood up, neatly stacking the folders on the table.

"Yes...May I go now?"

The folders were neatly placed in the proper places in her file cabinet, and Claire brushed a single stray strand of blonde hair back in place, "Any headaches today?"

Tobey smiled halfheartedly, "No, actually. First time in a long time. May I go now?

Claire glanced towards her son, slightly disheartened he was so eager to get away from her, "...Yes..."

Tobey turned quickly, eager to get out from under his mother's microscope, but paused, pulling a nondescript green thing out of his pocket and placing it on the table. Pulling his back pack off the floor, he made his exit as quickly as possible.

Claire sighed, picking up the green rubber three eyed alien toy that he had left behind. Was that all she was to him? A law enforcer? A lecturer? There had been a time when he couldn't stand to be apart from her, when she, in low, dark moments, would just hold him close and tell him, _"It's just you and me, Tobey. You and me, we'll make everything right. Right?"_

In some distant part of her mind, she could faintly hear her little son's innocent response, _"Right! And we'll play with robots__ too__?"_

Becky walked home slowly, her arms crossed in front of her as she tried to make sense of Walter.

She had spent nearly two hours with him as he scurried all over the house, pulling everything open in search of a microscope. She hadn't been able to help much, since she hadn't a clue how the house was organized (and there _was_ a very meticulous organization to it) and felt incredibly awkward to search through another person's belongings. When she had voiced her insecurities, Walter had paused, staring at her with a queer smile, mumbling something she couldn't make out even with her super hearing. Shaking it off, he kindly ordered her to sit on the couch while he searched on.

When the microscope had finally been found, (by T'sali no less), the blood on the glove was examined next to a sample of Wordgirl's blood.

"_Interesting," he had whispered, as Wordgirl hovered over him._

"_What is it?"_

"_It-" he suddenly stopped, turning to her with a meaningful look on his face. Wordgirl had quickly dropped onto her feet, hands up in mock surrender._

"_Sorry."_

"_It is almost exactly like your own DNA," he had smiled broadly, rows of very white, very straight teeth showing, "But traces of the original DNA of whomever took on your DNA remain in the molecular bonds. Unfortunately, the traces aren't nearly enough to do absolutely anything. I'd have to be able to have access to more of your doppelganger DNA."_

_Wordgirl had sighed, "Well, so much for hoping you could help me track her down..."_

_At that Walter had grinned, "Ah, but I can."_

_That initiated another search through boxes and attics and basements for a good half hour before Walter emerged once more triumphant, this time with a bizarre looking machine sporting several wires with suction pads at the ends. Wordgirl had backed away quickly._

"_What is that?"_

"_I am about to demonstrate how to find an alien," he smiled proudly, "You see, every planet has it's own gravitational and electromagnetic fields. Now, in this solar system, you can hardly distinguish any difference between planetary fields, BUT..."_

_At that Walter gently placed the pads on Wordgirl's forehead, ignoring her flinching, "Once you factor in an entirely different galaxy..."_

_The other pads were placed on a nearby potted plant, and a switch flipped on the machine. With a groan, it had hummed to life, and leaning forward, Wordgirl saw what seemed to be two glass panels with metal shavings between. Within moments, her side had arranged itself into a tight, swirled pattern, while the plant's side was somewhat wider and more circular._

"_Okay...How does this help me?"_

"_Ah, dear, simple girl," Walter turned the machine off, patting her head patronizingly while she raised an unamused eyebrow, "All we need to do is make a compass tuned to the magnetic field of our friend, since hers will in fact be different than yours, having Earth magnetism combined with yours."_

_She had raised an eyebrow, "You're going to make a compass to find her?"_

_A self assured nod was her answer, and she pursed her lips._

"_...Stranger things have happened, I suppose..."_

Now Becky wondered how Walter had known she had a different electromagnetic field than the rest of the planet. And she was beginning to worry; if he could find the imposter, and Wordgirl, then was her secret identity safe? What if, somehow, any of the other villains got their hands on that information, how would she protect her family then? What if he was a super villain?

"Becky!" the sudden shout jerked her violently out of her thoughts, and she let out a cry of surprise.

"T.J.! Don't scare me like that!" the teenager glared at her little brother, who shrugged from the front porch of their house, sticking his tongue out at her.

"You're late, and Mom and Dad aren't the slightest bit happy about it," he grinned at her before running in the house. Becky groaned, running her hands over her cheeks to the back of her brown head, grabbing handfuls of hair in resignation.

"Please, please don't be too mad," she muttered to the air as she skipped up the front lawn into the house. Immediately she was met by two frowning faces.

"Mom, Dad, I am so sorry. I just got so caught up in the library doing research for my paper and-"

Sally shook her head, "Becky! The library has been closed for two hours now!"

Tim attempted to be serious, but worry was more prominent in his expression, "We were worried sick, Becky! The sun is down, it is no time for you to be out on the streets...Are you alright? Did you get hurt? Did-?"

"Tim!" Sally attempted to reestablish the severity of the situation, but worry showed on her face as well.

Becky reached out, placing a hand on her father's shoulder, guilt on her face, "I'm so sorry, Mom, Dad. I'm absolutely fine, and I guess I lost track of time while I was at the park...You should have seen the fireflies! There were so many..."

Sally frowned at her daughter's attempt to derail the conversation, but sighed, pulling her daughter close, "Please, don't ever do that to us again. I'll have to ground you next time."

"They were about ready to call the police!" came a shout from T.J.'s room. Becky glared up the stairs, before turning back to her parents.

"I'm so sorry. I promise, it won't happen again, ever."

They nodded, satisfied for now, and Becky felt terribly guilty for lying again. No matter how many times she did it, it never was easy. She also felt guilty for having forgotten how much parents worried over their children's well being. Being Wordgirl gave her a protection, a comfort in any environment that was only there because she knew that no matter what happened, she would be okay, but her parents didn't have the luxury of that knowledge, of that confidence that she innately owned.

"Go on up to bed now," Tim patted her back.

"No dinner?" she asked halfheartedly.

"You came late, and your father and I decided that should be your punishment. And no reading, either," Sally informed her sadly.

"But it's Friday!"

"I'm sorry, but we have curfew for a reason Becky, and we just want to make sure you respect that."

Becky frowned, nodding slightly sullenly, "Yes mom..."

Turning on her heel with her parents eyes burning holes into her back, she walked up the stairs, trying not to be too fast and give the appearance of not being able to stand being around them, and trying not to go too slow and look like she was sulking.

With a sigh of relief, she made it to the top of the stairs, hurrying into her room and closing the door. As the door closed, she jumped at the sight of Bob's dead serious face.

"Bob!"

He raised an eyebrow, a low moan in the back of his throat. It didn't mean anything, but Becky knew that he was expressing annoyance at being left behind _again._

_Now I have to apologize __again._

Some part of her, the more prideful part, wanted to get angry and excuse it away, but she truly did feel sorry for leaving Bob behind.

"I'm sorry for leaving you behind, I didn't mean to, I just got caught up the moment and flew to Dr. Two Brains' lair and he gave me this address and...You won't believe what happened today," she began to smile, jumping into the air and floating cross-legged onto her bed. Bob dropped his annoyed expression, not having actually been quite that annoyed. He never could be truly angry at Becky, her being his very first family. There had actually been quite a few days between when he flew off the Planet Lexicon with baby Becky in tow and when he had crash landed on Earth, and he had fallen in love with the giggling little tike during the time he spent taking care of her.

"-then I met this reptilian dog creature walking on the ceiling. It's paws or feet had claws that hooked backwards, which I think it was digging into the wood to stay attached. Walter said its name was T'sali-"

A tiny bell rang in the back of Bob's head. He must have changed his expression, because Becky stopped her narrative.

"What's wrong?"

Blinking, he shook his head, telling her to continue. He didn't know why the name seemed important or why he could suddenly visualize a quite detailed reptile dog.

"He said that T'sali was an experiment, that he saved T'sali because they were going to put him down..."

"Did you ask where he worked?" Bob suddenly felt a barrage of questions banging on the front door of his mind. Becky deadpanned.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Bob smirked, the bell quieting down, "There's a saying, how's it go again? 'Two heads work better than one'?"

Becky rolled her eyes, smiling, "Har, har."

I grumbled to myself as I gingerly touched my sore nose.

_Darn_, _I thought the whole 'Alien-Supergirl-from-Lexicon' thing would keep me from getting hurt. Becky sure punches hard...Bad form though...Only reason she hasn't busted her wrists is because she's 'Alien-Supergirl-from-Lexicon' extraordinaire. Hmph... _

Still in Wordgirl's form, I was staking out the Super-Secret-Hideout from the clouds...something I was still having a hard time believing. I would have gone to bed by now, but Captain Huggy Face had returned and was taking forever to leave, and I had suddenly realized a very, very big flaw in my plan.

I had no replacement for Captain Huggy Face.

After spending an hour bashing my head against a boulder, I suddenly caught one of Becky's memories. Tobey had once created a robot replica of Captain Huggy Face to try and discover what Wordgirl's secret identity was, which would have worked had he actually premeditated it thoroughly enough to know that a dog carrier wouldn't hold

Becky's side-kick long enough for the plan to work.

"Tobey," I muttered, face scrunched in distaste. The robot had been rather severely destroyed by Becky and company, so I would either have to find a different robot expert, or I'd have to talk Tobey into helping me, and I am not exactly fond of trying to work with the creep, unlike Becky. Hmm...Maybe I could borrow another form to do it?

Wait...

I could borrow Tobey and his memories to fix it. Slapping my leg in victory, I stood in midair, walking as if on land until I reached my destination. With a grin, I relinquished control, suddenly plummeting straight down thousands of feet before jerking to a stop a few feet above the slanted roof of a house that Becky knew very well. Smirking, I stepped down onto the peak of the roof, perfectly balanced, and quickly made my way to the curtain covered window.

"Hmm..."

Super hearing kicked in, I listened for the heartbeats of the people inside, smiling at the quiet, relaxed '_Thump, thump, thump'_s coming from the house. Reaching out carefully, I pulled the window open. Fair City had very few petty thefts, and none of those ever ended in the death of anyone, so people felt comfortable in leaving their doors and windows unlocked, something that came in handy for times like this.

The breeze blew the curtain up, giving me a quick glimpse of the messy, cluttered room. I scrunched my nose in distaste once again, floating into the room and praying that the cumbersomely wide hips I had didn't knock anything over. The empty chest cavity of a robot blocked my view of Tobey's bed, and sighing, I floated over it, freezing as I caught sight of the sleeping boy.

Objects on the floor were floating around the bed, _glowing, _I tell you, a light blue, causing me to gawk.

"_What the what?" _I muttered.

Frankly, I hadn't the slightest clue what to make of the sight. Was there some weird machine he had made that was still running?

Shaking it off, I quietly floated over to the bed, gently reaching to touch a patch of skin or hair – didn't really matter which – not noticing how the glow on the objects suddenly flashed brighter when I came close.

_Slap! _Choking on my own gasp as Tobey's hand suddenly latched onto my arm, I fought the urge to hit and run, ask questions later. His eyes opened, unleashing a bright blue glow from under the thin pink eyelids. Frozen, we stared at each other, my heart pounding wildly, mind blank and body unresponsive.

"_T'sana?" _he whispered, question clear in his groggy voice.

Then, suddenly as he had grabbed me, his hand let go and his eyes slid shut, as if it had never happened.

Frightened beyond screaming or running, I slowly backed away, noticing that the objects had lost their glow and were lying on the floor. Adrenaline (or whatever the Lexiconian version of adrenaline was) suddenly rushed through my veins, and I took off, not caring if I woke him up in the process.

"Okay, he is now a class 2 freak," I tried to amuse myself, but the glow from his eyes was still imprinted on my eyes, and erasing any doubts that I had hallucinated or anything. Blinking to get rid of the blotches of color across my vision as I flew somewhere safe, still in Wordgirl's form, I sighed in relief. Maybe it had been a robot. That made more sense than anything else I could come up with; demon possession or glowing contact lenses were simply stupid.

'_T'sana' _he had said.

"What the heck does that mean?" I muttered as I landed in the park.

"Who are you?"

The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, and with a shriek, I dove for the bushes, forgetting momentarily _who _I was supposed to be. After a split second, I stood back up, embarrassed to have freaked out that way. Clearing my throat, I spotted a tall old man standing on the bridge, a dark wooden cane in hand. Glancing down to make sure I hadn't accidentally changed bodies, I raised an eyebrow at the man.

"I'm Wordgirl," I flew towards him, "What are you doing out so late?"

Ignoring my question, the man smiled at me, "You're not Wordgirl, dear. I can tell when you're lying, so please be honest with me."

Geez, how'd they blow my cover already? Chuckling as if I thought he was crazy, I waved it off, "Of course I am! I mean, how many brown haired, red suited..."

I glanced down at the modified suit, certain it was what gave me away, even as the old man smirked wider, before continuing, "-flying, crime-fighting girls from Lexicon do you know?"

He was silent for a moment, "You'd be surprised..."

Blinking, I slowly nodded at him, "Rrrright...Uhm, I've got to go?"

"You still haven't told me your name," the man persisted, and I sighed, turning to look at him.

"Would be much of a secret identity if-"

Glowing blue eyes met mine before I blacked out.

_Same place again, Becky noticed. Simply a swirl of jumbled things, emotions, voices, places, memories...fears, loves..._

_Unlike last time, there was a crisp clarity to her surroundings, and she recognized that she was in a very white room. The floor was smooth, flat, polished, white with a bluish tint in the darker areas. Faded memories, like old filmstrips, flashed across the grooved dome that rose out of this white floor._

_Slowly, she was acutely aware of another person with her, which she could somewhat recognize from last time._

"_It's like a whirlpool," the person murmured, back to her. Not that she could have made the figure out well; details were still foggy despite the newly gained clarity. _

"_More like a muddy pool," she asserted, causing the person to look at her, and though he snorted at her arrogantly, she could suddenly feel the underlying uncertainty that even he refused to acknowledge existed._

"_Oh, what could you know, you're just a figment of my imagination," he muttered darkly, walking around the room, "And all this? Positively hideous stuff going on in some of these. You can catch some glimpses of war, hatred, jealousy...things that would make _Anna Karenina _sound like something on a junior high student's summer reading list."_

"_Well, you're dramatic. Aren't you just out of junior high yourself?" she found herself following the young fellow around._

"_Who are you?"_

"_You're ignoring my questions. Huh. You make me think of Walter."_

_The fellow paused, face contorted as if trying to remember something, then, with a huff, threw his arms out hopelessly, "You know, I've been here before. I've heard, and watched and downloaded everything that's here into my mind, but the instant I wake up, it's all gone. This is someone's life, someone I know is somehow important, but I can't access all of my mind here. Good half of my active mind is too busy trying to keep up the simulation to be able to retain what I'm seeing."_

_He spun around to her, hands grabbing her shoulders roughly, "Can you help me?"_

"_It's what I do," Becky shrugged, assuming her role as Wordgirl as if there was no help for it. A vague understanding of the logic of her surroundings began to exert itself, "It's not just one person, though. I think there's many, many different people here, we just can't-"_

"_Connect..." the boy muttered, face relaxing for a moment, "No, no, it can't be, doesn't make sense..."_

"_What doesn't?"_

_The fellow sighed, letting go of her shoulders, reaching out into thin air and causing the faded memories to speed up until he hit the one he was looking for. Becky stared into it, her eyes suddenly hurting._

"_Happens when you look at memories that aren't yours," the fellow explained, as if reading her mind, "These aren't mine, but I've been able to access them somehow."_

"_I guess stranger things have happened," she frowned, turning back to the memory._

_A large group of young children sat in front of what Becky could only assume to be a teacher, who paced around, mouth moving at an alarmingly fast pace, speaking words Wordgirl had never heard before._

"_I don't understand them..."_

_The fellow groaned, "Of course you can, you're me after all, _listen_!"_

"_I'm not you! I'm me, and this memory is-" a sharp intake of air as she covered her aching ears, "It's hurting me."_

_He stared at her, "I'm...not making you up?"_

"_No."_

"_Then why do you look like Wordgirl?"_

_Becky's head snapped up, her frowning green eyes suddenly finding her companion's eyes. Blue._

"_Tobey?"_

"_...Idiot," he turned away from her, ignoring her as he slammed the heel of his palm on his forehead, "Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot-"_

"_Tobey, is that you? What are _you_ doing in my-"_

"_Stupid!" he burst, "I'm going to lose it all now!"_

"_...Lose what?"_

"_This room, this," he flailed his arms around desperately as if at a complete loss of words, "Everything! There's something so important about this, about all of it, and I just tossed it out of the metaphorical window because I was so desperate to not be alone!"_

_Wordgirl groaned, "Oh, don't overreact, you big baby. I don't see what you're going to lose-"_

"_You've looked into someone else memories, YOU'VE implanted your own mind or consciousness into this place now, and YOU'VE just ruined my only chance of finding out what happened to him! It was bad enough that my conscious mind is in complete oblivion about what is really going on, that I can find out what happened to me and _**him, **_and now I've got YOU to deal with!"_

_Becky scowled, turning away, "Jeez, talk about gratitude. You're the one that told me to look. Bye now!"_

_The fellow froze,(he never really had confirmed to being Tobey) and he opened his mouth as if to say something, only letting out some sort of choked gasp. He simply couldn't do it. He couldn't apologize...not directly, anyway. He knew, he knew very well that what he had said was cruel, but that was what he was. His conscious mind might be able to force him to grovel, but he had nothing of the sort here. He simply couldn't._

"_...I...I need help," he managed, and he saw that the girl had stopped, her skirt vanishing again, as it had whenever she felt she was to help. She was still dressed, yes, but in the suit that was Wordgirl's trademark, instead of the civilian clothes from before._

_She was going to help him, he sensed. Her honest sense of heroism filled the room, and somehow, the walls and floor took on a reddish tint instead of blue, although he could feel a lurking ego underneath the heroism. He quickly inferred from the conflict the girl's inner war with her own darkness, the darkness he had let consume him for so long now._

"_What are you trying to do?" she sighed._

"_Trying to find out what happened to me...and _**him.**_"_

"_Him?"_

"_M-"_

_The room suddenly trembled, and he winced, "Oh, he's doing it again."_

"_Who? Who's doing what again?"_

"_I don't know who. I just know that he's been pulling me into the memories lately..."_

"_To keep you safe?" the sentence popped out of her mouth before she could really understand it. _

_The room tilted, toppling the boy's balance and causing him to land flat on his back._

"_Ow! Does this look safe to you?"_

_Wordgirl shrugged, hardly affected by the moving room. Suddenly, a translucent arm reached out as if to touch the boy, and with a strangled gasp, he tried to squirm away, only to have it follow. Changing tactics, he grabbed the arm, face suddenly scrunching in concentration as he stared into empty space._

"_T'sana?" _

_Quickly as it had come, the arm vanished, and the room tilted back to normal. The boy stood up, brushing himself off, avoiding her gaze, "Well...I guess it wasn't him."_

"_Who's this '**him' **you keep talking about? And what's 'T'sana'?"_

"_It's not the same '_**him'**,_" he seemed exasperated with her for some reason, "One seems to control this place whenever he appears, and the other is...just...someone I used to know...T'sana is a person that keeps coming up...that looked like her."_

"_I see."_

"It's time for you two to go."

_Another voice. A woman. Both Becky and the boy felt a hair raising chill rise up their spines._

"_You don't know this one?" she asked, not moving. The boy shook his head slowly, as the room began to fade around them, the memories sucked back into the walls and the light fading into blackness._

A shooting pain seared across her head as she sat up with a hiss, sucking air in through her teeth.

"Ow, ow, ow..." Becky squeezed her forehead between her two hands, trying to relieve some of the pain, without success. Groaning, she clambered out of bed, not bothering to be quiet, and stumbled to the medicine cabinet, the searing pain clouding her sleepy vision.

Hardly troubling herself with noise or waking anyone up, she quickly found the aspirin bottle and swiftly swallowed the slightly bitter pills without water.

"Oh, it's worse this time," she muttered, holding her head in her hands. After a few moments, the medicine began to work, and the pain ebbed slowly. Lifting her head she was surprised not to find blood dripping out of her nose. Strange headache, and there hadn't been a dream before-

"_-can't access all of my mind here. Good half of my active mind is too busy trying to keep up the simulation to be able to retain what I'm seeing."_

The sentence flashed through her conscious mind quickly, although, groggy with both exhaustion and the medicine, it was swiftly rescinded, and as hard as she tried she couldn't remember what exactly it was that she had just heard.

"Are you okay?" T.J.'s groggy voice caused Becky to jumps, and she was surprised she hadn't heard him walking up to the bathroom with her super-hearing. Staring at him for a moment, she cleared her throat, "Oh, um, yeah...just a bad dream. Did I wake you up?"

Rubbing his eyes, the normally sassy boy shook his head, a meaningful tone to his voice, "No."

"Oh, right, sorry," she slipped by him, and he stumbled into the bathroom, closing it and locking it behind him, "Right..."

The pain had softened to a dull throb, something she could live with and she crawled back into bed, surprised that Bob hadn't woken up, patting his head gently in a sort of apology.

She had never gotten headaches like this before. Ever. Sure, she had gotten some pretty bad sinus headaches once or twice, and once she had a concussion when she fell head first out of her grandfather's apartment two stories off the ground when she was three and Bob had just taught her how to turn her powers on and off. Her parents hadn't a clue how she had gotten from the apartment to down there when it had happened, not having seen her fall, and had simply assumed she had crawled down the stairs and taken a tumble. But this pain was nothing like the bruised, brain rattled feeling of a concussion.

The memory reminded her that she wasn't indestructible. Like any human, she got sick, and if something hit her by surprise while she had her powers turned off, it would hurt. It never really hurt for as long as for a human, though, and it probably didn't hurt as much for her as it did for them, but it did hurt.

Noticing her library books stacked next to her bean bag, she smiled. Maybe these headaches were a human thing that had somehow crossed into her Lexiconian physique, which would be a bit of a relief, if they had a cure or something.

Bob stirred, face scrunching for a moment, then relaxing, before he began to snore. Becky groaned, hiding her head under her pillow. Bob didn't snore often, but when he did, he was loud.

The same skull splitting pain woke Tobey, but unlike Becky, he was used to it. Yawning, he placed his pointer and index fingers on his temples, pressing gently, sighing as it relieved a lot of the pain.

A chilling breeze flitted through his room, and he frowned, sitting up. Hadn't he closed the window? He curled up farther beneath his warm blankets, but the cool soaked through the comforter, and he groaned. Last thing he wanted right now was to have to get up and aggravate his headache anymore than he had to, but...He shuddered, and gave up, sitting up slowly and making his way to the open window, walking around the robot hull in the middle. Grabbing the window, he tried to pull it down, muttering to himself when it wouldn't budge. The cool breeze blew the curtains open, and he shuddered, glancing down at the sleeping neighborhood. The moon hadn't come out tonight, and the normally idyllic scenery seemed dark and cold tonight. Tobey felt a strange chill rising up his back, and he worked harder to pull the window down.

Darn! It wasn't usually this stubborn...

He suddenly spotted someone standing in the dark shadow of the neighboring house, and he let go of the window, stepping back apprehensively. Who in their right mind would stand outside at this time of-?

A sudden red glow filled the eyes of the obscure form, and he took another step back, heart chilling in fear.

He could sense the person, despite the fact that he or she was across the street, farther than his usual range, he could sense a malevolent grin staring on the dark face.

The eyes changed, glowing a bright blue.

_Oh, dear little nephew._

"Get away," he choked out, scrambling back as a deep set fear awoke, a fear he hadn't felt for so many years.

_Don't be afraid. It's not _your _time yet._

"Stop it," he stumbled back, losing sight of the terrifying eyes and backing up against the door.

_Shhh. You don't want to wake Mummy, now do you? Don't you remember what happened to your father?_

He froze, jaw clenching tightly as his head throbbed wildly, '_What do _you _know about my father?'_

He could sense the person laughing, laughing wildly, insanely.

_Oh, good boy. I see you're _finally _using your _real _genius. Come to the window._

"No."

Disappointment burst into his senses.

_Oh, fine, yeah, just go ahead and be like these pathetic Earthians. _**Talk **_why don't you?_

Robots. The idea suddenly flooded into his mind, and he ran towards his bed, opening the secret hatch in the robot themed headboard and pulling out one of his remotes, only to have it ripped out of his hands by an invisible force.

"Bloody-!" the same force pinned him against the wall, and he could sense a smirk on the person's face.

_Oh, come on, little Debbie, it's easier to take you down than wounded rabbit in a petting zoo. What, did all our _hard work _go to waste?_

He couldn't move, despite his best efforts, which, frankly, would have shamed even the most feminine of girls.

_There, there. You're as fun as feeding a starved kitten in front of an even more starved puppy._

Familiarity was beginning to seep into the situation, And Tobey could sense a bit of satisfaction from the person.

_Atta-boy. The mind sweep must have worked better than we thought, huh?_

The force suddenly vanished, causing him to fall flat on his face(he was glad now that he had lost his glasses when he had been pinned against the wall) and the person's presence vanished. Hurrying to his feet as he grabbed his glasses, he scrambled back to the window, surprised to find it closed.

Opening it and sticking his head out as far as he could, he stomped his foot in anger.

"Darn!"

Pulling the window shut, he sat curled up in his bed, unable to sleep now, afraid that whoever or whatever it was would come back, and yet...he almost wanted _it_ to come back. Them...whatever...That person knew something about his father, knew what had...

Tobey rocked back and forth on his heels as he stared into the darkness of the room, remembering many nights as a little toddler doing the same thing. He used to hate sleeping alone, and had, on more than one occasion, stubbornly stayed up all night to try and prove a point to his mother...not that it had worked...

The hours crept along, and Tobey buried his face in his knees, weak and...afraid. More afraid than he had been for so long...Tears tried to squeeze their way out, but he gritted his teeth, fought them back...

He had never really had much stamina, just a lot of anger that kept him going, and right now his anger had run it's course...Sleep slowly tugged on his eyelids, fogged up his mind, blurred his vision...Until he finally gave in, drifting off to a deep, listless sleep.

* * *

**IsabellaWinxSirenix: Yup, Jordan sure does. He/She's eventually going to play into something much, much bigger, but since the details are still a bit fuzzy to me(And I bet not everyone is such a spoiler fan as I am) I'm not going to say any more. ^^ For now. But Jordan used to play a very different part in my plot than he/she will now. As for Violet being shy, earlier I agreed with you, but after rewatching some of the episodes, her character does seem to have a bit more of an '****outgoing' hint than I thought. *Shrugs* Not as much as I put in, but it's...you know, something. 8D Yay! You saw the teeny-tiny little hints! ^^ *squeals happily before burying head in shame* I'm so glad you like Walter! ^^ And T'sali was a last minute addition that...threw himself in there. Now he's glaring at me...o.o *scoots away from the reptile dog* Hehe, thank you. ^^ As for the refrences, YAY, you got the Clark Kent one! ^^ Believe it or not, I wouldn't have gotten that barely a year ago. XD Pizza Hut is actually a place in Toy Story. I always thought it's be an awesome place to go if it existed, lol...Pffftttttt, I don't have a social life. But I have a family life that I carry a lot of responsibilty in, so that's not something I can irradicate. I wouldn't want to. (unfortunately. -_-) But thanks, lol! XD Yeah, if Jordan gets too annoying, just remember that he's going to DIE. Pretty painfully, I've discovered.**

**KimDWil71: Thanks! And I would, I really would, if I had time and more access to internet! :( I'll read your stuff as soon as I can though. ^^ Scouts honor.**

**SuperOreoMan: Hey, you got the conflict between Jordan and Wordgirl/Becky that I haven't yet established properly! XD Either you're amazing, or I am. **

**You, by a landslide. XD I'm such a horrible writer, lol! As for Tobey and his father...no, he doesn't really. Next chapter should establish and explore that topic a bit, but no promises...My brain changes things before I have time to sit and write. XD Has everyone watched Fringe? My mom and I had just gotten into that show when I wrote the chapter, so I thought it'd be a fun nod towards the Walter from Fringe, but gosh, no, My Walter isn't Walter Bishop at all. :/ Too bad, that actually would have been really interesting to do... KUDOS to you! You got almost everything! XD The one you didn't get is a bit obscure, anyway, so don't feel bad. YES, Edna Mode, from the Incredibles, Men in Black, T'sali's name was based off the Navi language from Avatar 8D, Pizza Planet YES, and it's also a Chuck-E-Cheeses sort of place in Toy Story! Clark Kent/Daily Planet(that one was pretty obvious. XD Still waiting for Man of Steel on DVD!) Metro City is from Megamind! And the aliens in the game(which you noticed! I didn't think anyone would notice) Are from 'Escape from Planet Earth'! ^^ So, you win! *throws party* ^^ I didn't put...any refrences in this chapter I don't think. :( Sorry, my brain didn't want to stretch that far this time, lol. Thank you!**

**casrules401: Seriously? That is so cool! XD Thanks for the Review! What's Homestuck? O.o**


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